Gaskell next week or
the week after, the day being yet undetermined. She was to have come
in June, but then my severe attack of influenza rendered it
impossible that I should receive or entertain her. Since that time
she has been absent on the Continent with her husband and two eldest
girls; and just before I received yours I had a letter from her
volunteering a visit at a vague date, which I requested her to fix as
soon as possible. My father has been much better during the last
three or four days.
'When I know anything certain I will write to you again.--Believe me,
my dear Miss Wooler, yours respectfully and affectionately,
'C. BRONTE.'
But the friendship, which commenced so late in Charlotte Bronte's life,
never reached the stage of downright intimacy. Of this there is abundant
evidence in the biography; and Mrs. Gaskell was forced to rely upon the
correspondence of older friends of Charlotte's. Mr. George Smith, the
head of the firm of Smith and Elder, furnished some twenty letters. Mr.
W. S. Williams, to whom is due the credit of 'discovering' the author of
_Jane Eyre_, lent others; and another member of Messrs. Smith and Elder's
staff, Mr. James Taylor, furnished half-a-dozen more; but the best help
came from another quarter.
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