Unfortunately, the fracture could
not be set till six o'clock the next morning, as no surgeon was to be
had before that time, and she now lies at our house in a very doubtful
and dangerous state. Of course we are all exceedingly distressed at
the circumstance, for she was like one of our own family. Since the
event we have been almost without assistance--a person has dropped in
now and then to do the drudgery, but we have as yet been able to
procure no regular servant; and consequently, the whole work of the
house, as well as the additional duty of nursing Tabby, falls on
ourselves. Under these circumstances I dare not press your visit
here, at least until she is pronounced out of danger; it would be too
selfish of me. Aunt wished me to give you this information before,
but papa and all the rest were anxious I should delay until we saw
whether matters took a more settled aspect, and I myself kept putting
it off from day to day, most bitterly reluctant to give up all the
pleasure I had anticipated so long. However, remembering what you
told me, namely, that you had commended the matter to a higher
decision than ours, and that you were resolved to submit with
resignation to that decision, whatever it might be, I hold it my duty
to yield also, and to be silent; it may be all for the best. I fear,
if you had been here during this severe weather, your visit would have
been of no advantage to you, for the moors are blockaded with snow,
and you would never have been able to get out. After this
disappointment, I never dare reckon with certainty on the enjoyment of
a pleasure again; it seems as if some fatality stood between you and
me. I am not good enough for you, and you must be kept from the
contamination of too intimate society. I would urge your visit yet--I
would entreat and press it--but the thought comes across me, should
Tabby die while you are in the house, I should never forgive myself.
No! it must not be, and in a thousand ways the consciousness of that
mortifies and disappoints me most keenly, and I am not the only one
who is disappointed. All in the house were looking to your visit with
eagerness. Papa says he highly approves of my friendship with you,
and he wishes me to continue it through life."

A good neighbour of the Brontes--a clever, intelligent Yorkshire woman,
who keeps a druggist's shop in Hawort