B. BRONTE.'
A week later he writes to the same friend:--
'I am incoherent, I fear, but I have been waking two nights
witnessing such agonising suffering as I would not wish my worst
enemy to endure; and I have now lost the guide and director of all
the happy days connected with my childhood. I have suffered much
sorrow since I last saw you at Haworth.'
Charlotte and Anne, it will be remembered, were at this time on their way
home from Brussels, and Anne had to seek relief from her governess bonds
at Mrs. Robinson's. Branwell would seem to have returned with Anne to
Thorp Green, as tutor to Mr. Robinson's son. He commenced his duties in
December 1842.
It would not be rash to assume--although it is only an assumption--that
Branwell took to opium soon after he entered upon his duties at Thorp
Green. I have already said something of the trouble which befel Mrs.
Gaskell in accepting the statements of Charlotte Bronte, and--after
Charlotte's death--of her friends, to the effect that Branwell became the
prey of a designing woman, who promised to marry him when her husband--a
venerable clergyman--should be dead. The story has been told too often.
Branwell was dismissed, and returned to the parsonage to rave about his
wrongs. If Mr. Robinson should die, the widow had promised to marry him,
he assured his friends.
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