e more to say hereafter.

Mary's account of their journey is thus given.

"In passing through London, she seemed to think our business was and
ought to be, to see all the pictures and statues we could. She knew the
artists, and know where other productions of theirs were to be found. I
don't remember what we saw except St. Paul's. Emily was like her in
these habits of mind, but certainly never took her opinion, but always
had one to offer . . . I don't know what Charlotte thought of Brussels.
We arrived in the dark, and went next morning to our respective schools
to see them. We were, of course, much preoccupied, and our prospects
gloomy. Charlotte used to like the country round Brussels. 'At the top
of every hill you see something.' She took, long solitary walks on the
occasional holidays."

Mr. Bronte took his daughters to the Rue d'Isabelle, Brussels; remained
one night at Mr. Jenkins'; and straight returned to his wild Yorkshire
village.

What a contrast to that must the Belgian capital have presented to those
two young women thus left behind! Suffering acutely from every strange
and unaccustomed contact--far away from their beloved home, and the dear
moors beyond--their indomitable will was their great support. Charlotte's
own words, with regard to Emily, are:--

"After the age of twenty, having meantime studied alone with diligence
and perseverance, she went with me to an establishment on the
continent. The same suffering and conflict ensued, heightened by the
strong recoil of her upright heretic and English spirit from the
gentle Jesuitry of the foreign and Romish system. Once more she
seemed sinking, but this time she rallied through the mere force of
resolution: with inward remorse and shame she looked back on her
former failure, and resolved to conquer, but the victory cost her
dear. She was never happy till she carried her hard-won knowledge
back to the remote English village, the old parsonage-house, and
desolate Yorkshire hills."

They wanted learning. They came for learning. They would learn. Where
they had a distinct purpose to be achieved in intercourse with their
fellows, they forgot themselves; at all other times they were miserably
shy. Mrs. Jenkins told me that she used to ask them to spend Sundays and
holidays with her, until she found that they felt more pain than pleasure
from such visits. Emily hardly ever uttered more than a monosyllable.