ct and
significant bearing on her work. She was born at Thornton, in the parish
of Bradford, in 1816. Four years later her father moved to Haworth, to
the parsonage now indissolubly associated with her name, and there Mr.
Bronte entered upon a long period of pastorate service, that only
ended with his death. Charlotte's mother was dead. In 1824 Charlotte and
two older sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, went to a school at Cowan's
Bridge. It was an institution for clergymen's children, a vivid picture
of which appears in 'Jane Eyre.' It was so badly managed and the food
was so poor that many of the children fell sick, among them Maria
Bronte, who died in 1825. Elizabeth followed her a few months later, and
Charlotte returned to Haworth, where she remained for six years, then
went to school at Roe Head for a period of three years. She was offered
the position of teacher by Miss Wooler, the principal at Roe Head, but
considering herself unfit to teach, she resolved to go to Brussels to
study French. She spent two years there, and it was there that her
intimate and misconstrued friendship for M. Heger developed. The
incidents of that period formed the material of a greater portion of her
novel 'Villette,' filled twenty-two volumes of from sixty to one hundred
pages of fine writing, and consisted of some forty complete novelettes
or other stories and childish "magazines."

On returning to Haworth, she endeavored, together with her sister Emily,
to establish a school at their home. But pupils were not to be had, and
the outlook was discouraging. Two periods of service as governess, and
the ill health that had followed, had taught Charlotte the danger that
threatened her. Her experiences as a governess in the Sedgwick family
were pictured by-and-by in 'Jane Eyre.' In a letter to Miss Ellen
Nussey, written at this time, she gives a dark vignette of her
situation.

With her two sisters Emily and Anne she lived a quiet and retired life.
The harsh realities about them, the rough natures of the Yorkshire
people, impelled the three sisters to construct in their home an ideal
world of their own, and in this their pent-up natures found expression.
Their home was lonely and gloomy. Mr. Clement K. Shorter, in his recent
study of the novelist and her family, says that the house is much the
same to-day, though its immediate surroundings are brightened.
He writes:

"One day Emily confided to Charlotte that she had written some verses.
Charl