.
Still, I know what Mrs. Williams will feel. We can have but one
father, but one mother, and when either is gone, we have lost what
can never be replaced. Offer her, under this affliction, my sincere
sympathy. I can well imagine the cloud these sad tidings would cast
over your young cheerful family. Poor little Dick's exclamation and
burst of grief are most naive and natural; he felt the sorrow of a
child--a keen, but, happily, a transient pang. Time will, I trust,
ere long restore your own and your wife's serenity and your
children's cheerfulness.

'I mentioned, I think, that we had one or two visitors at Haworth
lately; amongst them were Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth and his lady.
Before departing they exacted a promise that I would visit them at
Gawthorpe Hall, their residence on the borders of East Lancashire. I
went reluctantly, for it is always a difficult and painful thing to
me to meet the advances of people whose kindness I am in no position
to repay. Sir James is a man of polished manners, with clear
intellect and highly cultivated mind. On the whole, I got on very
well with him.

'His health is just now somewhat broken by his severe official
labours; and the quiet drives to old ruins and old halls situate
amongst older hills and woods, the dialogues (perhaps I should rather
say monologues, for I listened far more than I talked) by the
fireside in his antique oak-panelled drawing-room, while they suited
him, did not too much oppress and exhaust me. The house, too, is
very much to my taste, near three centuries old, grey, stately, and
picturesque. On the whole, now that the visit is over, I do not
regret having paid it. The worst of it is that there is now some
menace hanging over my head of an invitation to go to them in London
during the season--this, which would doubtless be a great enjoyment
to some people, is a perfect terror to me. I should highly prize the
advantages to be gained in an extended range of observation, but I
tremble at the thought of the price I must necessarily pay in mental
distress and physical wear and tear. But you shall have no more of
my confessions--to you they will appear folly.--Yours sincerely,

'C. BRONTE.'

TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY