f unsound mind. However, a correspondence
with him would seem to have ended amicably enough. {408}

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'HAWORTH, _January_ 28_th_, 1848.

'DEAR SIR,--I need not tell you that when I saw Mr. Thackeray's
letter inclosed under your cover, the sight made me very happy. It
was some time before I dared open it, lest my pleasure in receiving
it should be mixed with pain on learning its contents--lest, in
short, the dedication should have been, in some way, unacceptable to
him.

'And, to tell you the truth, I fear this must have been the case; he
does not say so, his letter is most friendly in its noble simplicity,
but he apprises me, at the commencement, of a circumstance which both
surprised and dismayed me.

'I suppose it is no indiscretion to tell you this circumstance, for
you doubtless know it already. It appears that his private position
is in some points similar to that I have ascribed to Mr. Rochester;
that thence arose a report that _Jane Eyre_ had been written by a
governess in his family, and that the dedication coming now has
confirmed everybody in the surmise.

'Well may it be said that fact is often stranger than fiction! The
coincidence struck me as equally unfortunate and extraordinary. Of
course I knew nothing whatever of Mr. Thackeray's domestic concerns,
he existed for me only as an author. Of all regarding his
personality, station, connections, private history, I was, and am
still in a great measure, totally in the dark; but I am _very very_
sorry that my inadvertent blunder should have made his name and
affairs a subject for common gossip.

'The very fact of his not complaining at all and addressing me with
such kindness, notwithstanding the pain and annoyance I must have
caused him, increases my chagrin. I could not half express my regret
to him in my answer, for I was restrained by the consciousness that
that regret was just worth nothing at all--quite valueless for
healing the mischief I had done.

'Can you tell me anything more on this subject? or can you guess in
what degree the unlucky coincidence would affect him--whether it
would pain him much and deeply; for he says so little himself on the
topic, I am at a loss to divine the exact truth--but I fear.

'Do no