ste. I am commissioned to tell you,
first, that she has decided not to go to Yarmouth till after
Christmas, her mother's health having within the last few days
betrayed some symptoms not unlike those which preceded her former
illness; and though it is to be hoped that those may pass without any
untoward result, yet they naturally increase Ellen's reluctance to
leave home for the present.

'Secondly, I am to say, that when the present you left came to be
examined, the costliness and beauty of it inspired some concern.
Ellen thinks you are too kind, as I also think every morning, for I
am now benefiting by your kind gift.

'With sincere regards to all at the Parsonage,--I am, my dear Miss
Wooler, yours respectfully and affectionately,

'C. BRONTE.

'_P.S._--I shall direct that _Esmond_ (Mr. Thackeray's work) shall be
sent on to you as soon as the Hunsworth party have read it. It has
already reached a second edition.'

TO MISS WOOLER

'HAWORTH, _January_ 20_th_, 1853.

'MY DEAR MISS WOOLER,--Your last kind note would not have remained so
long unanswered if I had been in better health. While Ellen was with
me, I seemed to revive wonderfully, but began to grow worse again the
day she left; and this falling off proved symptomatic of a relapse.
My doctor called the next day; he said the headache from which I was
suffering arose from inertness in the liver.

'Thank God, I now feel better; and very grateful am I for the
improvement--grateful no less for my dear father's sake than for my
own.

'Most fully can I sympathise with you in the anxiety you express
about your friend. The thought of his leaving England and going out
alone to a strange country, with all his natural sensitiveness and
retiring diffidence, is indeed painful; still, my dear Miss Wooler,
should he actually go to America, I can but then suggest to you the
same source of comfort and support you have suggested to me, and of
which indeed I know you never lose sight--namely, reliance on
Providence. "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," and He will
doubtless care for a good, though afflicted man, amidst whatever
difficulties he may be thrown. When you write again, I should be