r
life. It will be remembered that Charlotte Bronte, Ellen Nussey, and
Mary Taylor first met at Roe Head School, when Charlotte and Mary were
fifteen and her friend about fourteen years of age. Here are Miss
Nussey's impressions--

'She was pretty, and very childish-looking, dressed in a red-coloured
frock with short sleeves and low neck, as then worn by young girls.
Miss Wooler in later years used to say that when Mary went to her as
a pupil she thought her too pretty to live. She was not talkative at
school, but industrious, and always ready with lessons. She was
always at the top in class lessons, with Charlotte Bronte and the
writer; seldom a change was made, and then only with the three--one
move. Charlotte and she were great friends for a time, but there was
no withdrawing from me on either side, and Charlotte never quite knew
how an estrangement arose with Mary, but it lasted a long time. Then
a time came that both Charlotte and Mary were so proficient in
schoolroom attainments there was no more for them to learn, and Miss
Wooler set them Blair's _Belles Lettres_ to commit to memory. We all
laughed at their studies. Charlotte persevered, but Mary took her
own line, flatly refused, and accepted the penalty of disobedience,
going supper-less to bed for about a month before she left school.
When it was moonlight, we always found her engaged in drawing on the
chest of drawers, which stood in the bay window, quite happy and
cheerful. Her rebellion was never outspoken. She was always quiet
in demeanour. Her sister Martha, on the contrary, spoke out
vigorously, daring Miss Wooler so much, face to face, that she
sometimes received a box on the ear, which hardly any saint could
have withheld. Then Martha would expatiate on the danger of boxing
ears, quoting a reverend brother of Miss Wooler's. Among her school
companions, Martha was called "Miss Boisterous," but was always a
favourite, so piquant and fascinating were her ways. She was not in
the least pretty, but something much better, full of change and
variety, rudely outspoken, lively, and original, producing laughter
with her own good-humour and affection. She was her father's pet
child. He delighted in hearing her sing, telling her to go to the
piano, with his affectionate "Patty lass."

'Mary never had the impromptu vivacit