otte answered with a similar confidence, and then Anne acknowledged
that she too had been secretly writing. This mutual confession brought
about a complete understanding and sympathy, and from that time on the
sisters worked together--reading their literary productions to one
another and submitting to each other's criticism."

This was however by no means Charlotte's first literary work. She has
left a catalogue of books written by her between 1829 and 1830. Her
first printed work however appeared in a volume of 'Poems' by Acton,
Ellis, and Currer Bell, published in 1846 at the expense of the authors.
Under these names the little book of the Bronte sisters went forth to
the world, was reviewed with mild favor in some few periodicals, and was
lost to sight.

Then came a period of novel-writing. As a result, Emily Bronte's
'Wuthering Heights,' Anne Bronte's 'Agnes Grey,' and Charlotte Bronte's
'The Professor' set out together to find a publisher. The last-named was
unsuccessful; but on the day it was returned to her, Charlotte Bronte
began writing 'Jane Eyre.' That first masterpiece was shaped during a
period of sorrow and discouragement. Her father was ill and in danger of
losing his eyesight. Her brother Bran well was sinking into the slough
of disgrace. No wonder 'Jane Eyre' is not a story of sunshine and roses.
She finished the story in 1847, and it was accepted by the publishers
promptly upon examination.

After its publication and the sensation produced, Charlotte Bronte
continued her literary work quietly, and unaffected by the furore she
had aroused. A few brief visits to London, where attempts were made to
lionize her,--very much to her distaste,--a few literary friendships,
notably those with Thackeray, George Henry Lewes, Mrs. Gaskell, and
Harriet Martineau, were the only features that distinguished her
literary life from the simple life she had always led and continued to
lead at Haworth. She was ever busy, if not ever at her desk. Success had
come; she was sane in the midst of it. She wrote slowly and only as she
felt the impulse, and when she knew she had found the proper impression.
In 1849 'Shirley' was published. In 1853 appeared 'Villette,' her last
finished work, and the one considered by herself the best.

In 1854 she married her father's curate, Mr. A.B. Nicholls. She had lost
her brother Branwell and her two sisters Emily and Anne. Sorrow upon
sorrow had closed like deepening shadows about her. Al