'You must not think of selecting any more works for me yet, my stock
is still far from exhausted.
'I accept your offer respecting the _Athenaeum_; it is a paper I
should like much to see, providing you can send it without trouble.
It shall be punctually returned.
'Papa's health has, I am thankful to say, been very satisfactory of
late. The other day he walked to Keighley and back, and was very
little fatigued. I am myself pretty well.
'With thanks for your kind letter and good wishes,--Believe me, yours
sincerely,
'C. BRONTE.'
Mrs. Gaskell has much to say of Miss Bronte's relations with George Henry
Lewes. {432} He was a critic with whom she had much correspondence and
not a few differences. It will be remembered that Charlotte describes
him as bearing a resemblance to Emily--a curious circumstance by the
light of the fact that Lewes was always adjudged among his acquaintances
as a peculiarly ugly man. Here is a portion of a letter upon which Mrs.
Gaskell practised considerable excisions, and of which she prints the
remainder:--
TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY
'_June_ 12_th_, 1850.
'I have seen Lewes. He is a man with both weakness and sins, but
unless I err greatly, the foundation of his nature is not bad; and
were he almost a fiend in character I could not feel otherwise to him
than half-sadly, half-tenderly.
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