elf. The novel to
which she refers in a letter to her friend never seems to have got itself
written, or at least published, for it was not until 1890 that Miss Mary
Taylor produced a work of fiction--_Miss Miles_. {259a} This novel
strives to inculcate the advantages as well as the duty of women learning
to make themselves independent of men. It is well, though not
brilliantly written, and might, had the author possessed any of the
latter-day gifts of self-advertisement, have attracted the public, if
only by the mere fact that its author was a friend of Currer Bell's. But
Miss Taylor, it is clear, hated advertisement, and severely refused to be
lionised by Bronte worshippers. Twenty years earlier than _Miss Miles_,
I may add, she had preached the same gospel in less attractive guise. A
series of papers in the _Victorian Magazine_ were reprinted under the
title of _The First Duty of Women_. {259b} 'To inculcate the duty of
earning money,' she declares, 'is the principal point in these articles.'
'It is to the feminine half of the world that the commonplace duty of
providing for themselves is recommended,' and she enforces her doctrine
with considerable point, and by means of arguments much more accepted in
our day than in hers. Miss Taylor died in March 1893, at High Royd, in
Yorkshire, at the age of seventy-six. She will always occupy an
honourable place in the Bronte story.

CHAPTER X: MARGARET WOOLER

The kindly, placid woman who will ever be remembered as Charlotte
Bronte's schoolmistress, had, it may be safely said, no history. She was
a good-hearted woman, who did her work and went to her rest with no
possible claim to a place in biography, save only that she assisted in
the education of two great women. For that reason her brief story is
worth setting forth here.

'I am afraid we cannot give you very much information about our aunt,
Miss Wooler,' writes one of her kindred. 'She was the eldest of a
large family, born June 10th, 1792. She was extremely intelligent
and highly educated, and throughout her long life, which lasted till
within a week of completing her ninety-third year, she took the
greatest interest in religious, political, and every charitable work,
being a life governor to many institutions. Part of her early life
was spent in the Isle of Wight with relations, where she was very
intimate with the Sewell family, one of whom was the author of _