I cannot write much.
I can only pray Providence to preserve you and yours from such
affliction as He has seen good to accumulate on me and mine.
'With best regards to your dear mamma and all your circle,--Believe
me, yours faithfully,
'C. BRONTE.'
TO MISS WOOLER
'HAWORTH, _March_ 24_th_, 1849.
'MY DEAR MISS WOOLER,--I have delayed answering your letter in the
faint hope that I might be able to reply favourably to your inquiries
after my sister's health. This, however, is not permitted me to do.
Her decline is gradual and fluctuating, but its nature is not
doubtful. The symptoms of cough, pain in the side and chest, wasting
of flesh, strength, and appetite, after the sad experience we have
had, cannot but be regarded by us as equivocal.
'In spirit she is resigned; at heart she is, I believe, a true
Christian. She looks beyond this life, and regards her home and rest
as elsewhere than on earth. May God support her and all of us
through the trial of lingering sickness, and aid her in the last hour
when the struggle which separates soul from body must be gone
through!
'We saw Emily torn from the midst of us when our hearts clung to her
with intense attachment, and when, loving each other as we did--well,
it seemed as if (might we but have been spared to each other) we
could have found complete happiness in our mutual society and
affection.
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