inclosed three letters for your perusal,
the first from Mary Taylor. There is also one from Lewes and one
from Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, both which peruse and return. I have
also, since you went, had a remarkable epistle from Thackeray, long,
interesting, characteristic, but it unfortunately concludes with the
strict injunction, _show this letter to no one_, adding that if he
thought his letters were seen by others, he should either cease to
write or write only what was conventional; but for this circumstance
I should have sent it with the others. I answered it at length.
Whether my reply will give satisfaction or displeasure remains yet to
be ascertained. Thackeray's feelings are not such as can be gauged
by ordinary calculation: variable weather is what I should ever
expect from that quarter, yet in correspondence as in verbal
intercourse, this would torment me.--Yours faithfully,

'C. B.'

TO REV. P. BRONTE

'76 GLOUCESTER TERRACE, HYDE PARK,
'LONDON, _Thursday Morning_.

'DEAR PAPA,--I write one hasty line just to tell you that I got here
quite safely at ten o'clock last night without any damage or smash in
tunnels or cuttings. Mr. and Mrs. Smith met me at the station and
gave me a kind and cordial welcome. The weather was beautiful the
whole way, and warm; it is the same to-day. I have not yet been out,
but this afternoon, if all be well, I shall go to Mr. Thackeray's
lecture. I don't know when I shall see the Exhibition, but when I
do, I shall write and tell you all about it. I hope you are well,
and will continue well and cheerful. Give my kind regards to Tabby
and Martha, and--Believe me, your affectionate daughter,

'C. BRONTE.'

It cannot be said that Charlotte Bronte and Thackeray gained by personal
contact. 'With him I was painfully stupid,' she says. It was the case
of Heine and Goethe over again. Heine in the presence of the king of
German literature could talk only of the plums in the garden. Charlotte
Bronte in the presence of her hero Thackeray could not express herself
with the vigour and intelligence which belonged to her correspondence
with Mr. Williams