she did
not grant them such and such indulgences, they would tell their
bed-ridden father how she went on with Mr. Bronte. He was so
beguiled by this mature and wicked woman that he went home for his
holiday reluctantly, stayed there as short a time as possible,
perplexing and distressing them all by his extraordinary
conduct,--at one time in the highest spirits, at another in deepest
depression,--accusing himself of blackest guilt and treachery,
without specifying what they were; and altogether evincing an
irritability of disposition bordering on insanity. Charlotte and
her sister suffered acutely from his mysterious behavior. They
began to lose all hope in his future career. He was no longer the
family pride; an indistinct dread was creeping over their minds
that he might turn out the family disgrace.

"After a time the husband of the woman with whom he had intrigued,
died. Branwell had been looking forward to this with guilty hope.
After her husband's death his paramour would be free; strange as it
seems, the young man still loved her passionately, and now imagined
the time had come when they might look forward to being married,
and might live together without reproach or blame. She had offered
to elope with him; she had written to him perpetually; she had sent
him money, twenty pounds at a time,--he remembered the criminal
advances she had made; she had braved shame and her children's
menaced disclosures for his sake; he thought she must love him; he
little knew how bad a depraved woman can be. Her husband had made a
will, in which he left her his property solely on the condition
that she should never see Branwell Bronte again. At the very time
the will was read, she did not know but that he might be on his way
to her, having heard of her husband's death. She despatched a
servant in hot haste to Haworth. He stopped at the Black Bull, and
a messenger was sent to the parsonage for Branwell. He came down to
the little inn, and was shut up with the man some time. Then the
groom went away, and Branwell was left in the room alone. More than
an hour elapsed before sign or sound was heard; then those outside
heard a noise like the bleating of a calf, and on opening the door
he was found in a kind of fit, succeeding to the stupor of grief
which he