surround and shut it in on either side, making it close and sombre, and the noises of the great city all about it penetrate here only as a far-away murmur.  There is a plat of verdant turf in the centre, bordered by scant flowers and damp gravelled walks, along which shrubs of evergreen and laurel are irregularly disposed.  A few seats are placed here and there within the shade, where, as in Miss Bronte’s time, the externals eat the luncheon brought with them to the school; and overlooking it all stand the great old pear-trees, whose gnarled and deformed trunks are relics of the time of the hospital and convent.  Beyond these and along the gray wall which bounds the farther side of the enclosure is the sheltered walk which was Miss Bronte’s favorite retreat,—­the “allee defendue” of her novels.  It is screened by shrubs and perfumed by flowers, and, being secure from the intrusion of pupils, we could well believe that Charlotte and her heroine found here restful seclusion.  The coolness and quiet and—­more than all—­the throng of vivid associations which fill the place tempted us to linger.  The garden is not a spacious nor even a pretty one, and yet it seemed to us singularly pleasing and familiar,—­as if we were revisiting it after an absence.  Seated upon a rustic bench close at hand, possibly the very one which Lucy Snowe had cleansed and “reclaimed from fungi and mould,” how the memories came surging up into our minds!  How often in the summer twilight poor Charlotte had lingered here in restful solitude after the day’s burdens and trials with “stupid and impertinent” pupils!  How often, with weary feet and a dreary heart, she had paced this secluded walk and thought, with longing almost insupportable, of the dear ones in far-away Haworth parsonage!  In this sheltered corner her other self—­Lucy Snowe—­sat and listened to the distant chimes and thought forbidden thoughts and cherished impossible hopes.  Here she met and talked with Dr. John.  Deep beneath this “Methuselah of a pear-tree,” the one nearest the end of the alley, lies the imprisoned dust of the poor young nun who was buried alive ages ago for some sin against her vow, and whose perambulating ghost so disquieted poor Lucy.  At the root of this same tree one miserable night Lucy buried her precious letters, and “meant also to bury a grief” and her great affection for Dr. John.  Here she had leant her brow against Methuselah’s knotty trunk and uttered to herself those brave words of renunciation which must have wrung her heart:  “Good-night, Dr. John; you are good, you are beautiful, but you are not mine.  Good-night, and God bless you!” Here she held pleasant converse with M. Paul, and with him, spell-bound, saw the ghost of the nun descend from the leafy shadows overhead and, sweeping close past their wondering faces, disappear behind yonder screen of shrubbery into the darkness of the summer night.  By that tall tree next the class-rooms the ghost was wont to ascend to meet its