CHARLOTTE BRONTE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12483, 26 June 1926, Page 7

CHARLOTTE BRONTE

It must have been an interesting soene to see Mrs Gaskell and Charlotte Bronte at tea together, bliss Bronte left her dull village to visit the lady who was afterwards to write her life. Sitting down to tea on the day of her arrival, the fragile and painfully sensitive little lady in black silk expressed a hope that there was no green in the tea, as sbo could not sleep at night after drinking green tea. Mrs Gaskell, with an uncomfortable consciousness that she hal not at the moment a genuine blend of black tea, tried to set Miss Bronte’s fears at rest without revealing the fact that the tea before them was in reality the obnoxious green. The next morning Mrs Gaskell anxiously asked if her guest-slept well, and Charlotte replied that she had not had so good a night for many months. One day during the visit a lady was suddenly shown into the room where Mrs Gaskell was sitting with her gnest. Miss Bronte was so nervous she quickly concealed harself behind the heavy dimask curtains, and did ncit appear till the visitor had -left. However, a little later, she was so pleased with other visitors Mrs Gaskell had to tea that she actually arranged to g> and see them; but when the time came this famous woman, , the delicate, slight, grey-eyed genius who ha-1 written Jane Eyre, could not force herself to enter the strange house. Mrs Gaskell explained matters to her friends; then she took Miss Bronte bark to her quiet old drawing-room, with its dignified Chippendale furniture and its restful colouring.