he whole world weighed in the balance against his
smallest wish should be light as air. Could I, knowing my mind to be
such as that, conscientiously say that I would take a grave, quiet,
young man like Henry? No, it would have been deceiving him, and
deception of that sort is beneath me. So I wrote a long letter back,
in which I expressed my refusal as gently as I could, and also
candidly avowed my reasons for that refusal. I described to him,
too, the sort of character that would suit him for a wife.--Good-bye,
my dear Ellen.

'C. BRONTE.'

Mr. Nussey was a very good man, with a capacity for making himself
generally esteemed, becoming in turn vicar of Earnley, near Chichester,
and afterwards of Hathersage, in Derbyshire. It was honourable to his
judgment that he had aspired to marry Charlotte Bronte, who, as we know,
had neither money nor much personal attraction, and at the time no
possible prospect of literary fame. Her common-sense letter in reply to
his proposal had the desired effect. He speedily took the proffered
advice, and six months later we find her sending him a letter of
congratulation upon his engagement to be married.

TO REV. HENRY NUSSEY

'HAWORTH, _October_ 28_th_, 1839.

'DEAR SIR,--I have delayed answering your last communication in the
hopes of receiving a letter from Ellen, that I might be able to
transmit to you the latest news from Brookroyd; however, as she does
not write, I think I ought to put off my reply no longer lest you
should begin to think me negligent. As you rightly conjecture, I had
heard a little hint of what you allude to before, and the account
gave me pleasure, coupled as it was with the assurance that the
object of your regard is a worthy and estimable woman. The step no
doubt will by many of your friends be considered scarcely as a
prudent one, _since_ fortune is not amongst the number of the young
lady's advantages. For my own part, I must confess that I esteem you
the more for not hunting after wealth if there be strength of mind,
firmness of principle, and sweetness of temper to compensate for the
absence of that usually all-powerful attraction. The wife who brings
riches to her husband sometimes also brings an idea of her own
importance and a tenacity about what she conceives to be her right