She was afterwards
placed in a madhouse, where she would have been detained for life,
had not her brother Charles promised to devote himself to her and
take her under his care--and for her sake renounce a project of
marriage he then entertained. An instance of abnegation of self
scarcely, I think, to be paralleled in the annals of the "coarser
sex." They passed their subsequent lives together--models of
fraternal affection, and would have been very happy but for the dread
visitation to which Mary Lamb continued liable all her life. I
thought it both a sad and edifying history. Your account of your
little niece's naive delight in beholding the morning sea for the
first time amused and pleased me; it proves she has some
sensations--a refreshing circumstance in a day and generation when
the natural phenomenon of children wholly destitute of all pretension
to the same is by no means an unusual occurrence.
'I have written a long letter as you requested me, but I fear you
will not find it very amusing. With love to your little
companion,--Believe me, my dear Miss Wooler, yours affectionately and
respectfully,
'C. BRONTE.
'Papa, I am most thankful to say, continues in very good health,
considering his age.
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