ut I am
most heartily glad that he has made it. A letter from Mr. Nicholls
was forwarded along with yours, which I opened first, and was thus
prepared for your communication, the subject of which is of the
deepest interest to me. I will do everything in my power to aid the
righteous work you have undertaken, but I feel my powers very
limited, and apprehend that you may experience some disappointment
that I cannot contribute more largely the information which you
desire. I possess a great many letters (for I have destroyed but a
small portion of the correspondence), but I fear the early letters
are not such as to unfold the character of the writer except in a few
points. You perhaps may discover more than is apparent to me. You
will read them with a purpose--I perused them only with interests of
affection. I will immediately look over the correspondence, and I
promise to let you see all that I can confide to your friendly
custody. I regret that my absence from home should have made it
impossible for me to have the pleasure of seeing you at Brookroyd at
the time you propose. I am engaged to stay here till Monday week,
and shall be happy to see you any day you name after that date, or,
if more convenient to you to come Friday or Saturday in next week, I
will gladly return in time to give you the meeting. I am staying
with our schoolmistress, Miss Wooler, in this place. I wish her very
much to give me leave to ask you here, but she does not yield to my
wishes; it would have been pleasanter to me to talk with you among
these hills than sitting in my home and thinking of one who had so
often been present there.--I am, my dear madam, yours sincerely,

'ELLEN NUSSEY.'

Mrs. Gaskell and Miss Nussey met, and the friendship which ensued was
closed only by death; and indeed one of the most beautiful letters in the
collection in my hands is one signed 'Meta Gaskell,' and dated January
22, 1866. It tells in detail, with infinite tenderness and pathos, of
her mother's last moments. {14} That, however, was ten years later than
the period with which we are concerned. In 1856 Mrs. Gaskell was
energetically engaged upon a biography of her friend which should lack
nothing of thoroughness, as she hoped. She claimed to have visited the
scenes of all the incidents in Charl