“This is the epitome of her life.  At our house she had just as little chance of a patient hearing, for though not school-girlish, we were more intolerant.  We had a rage for practicality, and laughed all poetry to scorn.  Neither she nor we had any idea but that our opinions were the opinions of all the sensible people in the world, and we used to astonish each other at every sentence . . .  Charlotte, at school, had no plan of life beyond what circumstances made for her.  She knew that she must provide for herself, and chose her trade; at least chose to begin it once.  Her idea of self-improvement ruled her even at school.  It was to cultivate her tastes.  She always said there was enough of hard practicality and useful knowledge forced on us by necessity, and that the thing most needed was to soften and refine our minds.  She picked up every scrap of information concerning painting, sculpture, poetry, music, &c., as if it were gold.”

What I have heard of her school days from other sources, confirms the accuracy of the details in this remarkable letter.  She was an indefatigable student:  constantly reading and learning; with a strong conviction of the necessity and value of education, very unusual in a girl of fifteen.  She never lost a moment of time, and seemed almost to grudge the necessary leisure for relaxation and play-hours, which might be partly accounted for by the awkwardness in all games occasioned by her shortness of sight.  Yet, in spite of these unsociable habits, she was a great favourite with her school-fellows.  She was always ready to try and do what they wished, though not sorry when they called her awkward, and left her out of their sports.  Then, at night, she was an invaluable story-teller, frightening them almost out of their wits as they lay in bed.  On one occasion the effect was such that she was led to scream out aloud, and Miss W—–­, coming up stairs, found that one of the listeners had been seized with violent palpitations, in consequence of the excitement produced by Charlotte’s story.

Her indefatigable craving for knowledge tempted Miss W—–­ on into setting her longer and longer tasks of reading for examination; and towards the end of the year and a half that she remained as a pupil at Roe Head, she received her first bad mark for an imperfect lesson.  She had had a great quantity of Blair’s “Lectures on Belles Lettres” to read; and she could not answer some of the questions upon it; Charlotte Bronte had a bad mark.  Miss W—–­ was sorry, and regretted that she had set Charlotte so long a task.  Charlotte cried bitterly.  But her school-fellows were more than sorry—­they were indignant.  They declared that the infliction of ever so slight a punishment on Charlotte Bronte was unjust—­for who had tried to do her duty like her?—­and testified their feeling in a variety of ways, until Miss W—–­, who was in reality only too willing to pass over her good pupil’s first fault, withdrew the bad mark; and the girls all returned to their allegiance except “Mary,” who took her own way during the week or two that remained of the half-year, choosing to consider that Miss W—–­, in giving Charlotte Bronte so long a task, had forfeited her claim to obedience of the school regulations.