ent one of her little
pupils a gift-book during the holidays. The book is lost, but the
fly-leaf of it, inscribed 'Sarah Louisa White, from her friend C. Bronte,
July 20, 1841,' is in the possession of Mr. W. Lowe Fleeming, of
Wolverhampton.

{96} 'UPPERWOOD HOUSE, RAWDON, _September _29_th_, 1841.

'DEAR AUNT,--I have heard nothing of Miss Wooler yet since I wrote to
her intimating that I would accept her offer. I cannot conjecture
the reason of this long silence, unless some unforeseen impediment
has occurred in concluding the bargain. Meantime, a plan has been
suggested and approved by Mr. and Mrs. White, and others, which I
wish now to impart to you. My friends recommend me, if I desire to
secure permanent success, to delay commencing the school for six
months longer, and by all means to contrive, by hook or by crook, to
spend the intervening time in some school on the continent. They say
schools in England are so numerous, competition so great, that
without some such step towards attaining superiority we shall
probably have a very hard struggle, and may fail in the end. They
say, moreover, that the loan of 100 pounds, which you have been so
kind as to offer us, will, perhaps, not be all required now, as Miss
Wooler will lend us the furniture; and that, if the speculation is
intended to be a good and successful one, half the sum, at least,
ought to be laid out in the manner I have mentioned, thereby insuring
a more speedy repayment both of interest and principal.

'I would not go to France or to Paris. I would go to Brussels, in
Belgium. The cost of the journey there, at the dearest rate of
travelling, would be 5 pounds; living is there little more than half
as dear as it is in England, and the facilities for education are
equal or superior to any other place in Europe. In half a year, I
could acquire a thorough familiarity with French. I could improve
greatly in Italian, and even get a dash of German, _i.e._, providing
my health continued as good as it is now. Martha Taylor is now
staying in Brussels, at a first-rate establishment there. I should
not think of going to the Chateau de Kockleberg, where she is
resident, as the terms are much too high; but if I wrote to her, she,
with the assistance of Mrs. Jenkins, the wife of the British Consul,
would be able to secure me a cheap