Memorials of Two Sisters, by Margaret J. Shaen

Miss Catherine Winkworth, who was one of Mrs. GaskelPs  faithful friends, wrote a letter to her sister on 8th May, 1854, which was not published until 1908, in Memorials of Two Sisters, by Margaret J. Shaen, two years after Mr. Nicholls' death. This letter showed quite plainly that Charlotte Bronte had no real love for Mr. Nicholls, and the patronising tone in which she speaks of him is a revelation to those who thought

that the author of Jane Eyre and Villette would never give her hand without her heart.

 " It has cost me a good deal to come to this,' and " I cannot conceal from myself that he is not intellectual ; there are many places in which he could not follow me intellectually."

This is scarcely fair to Mr. Nicholls, who had been educated by his uncle, Mr. Alan Bell, at the Royal High School, King's County, and had afterwards graduated at Trinity College, Dublin.
Another remark which she made to her friends was,

" He is a Puseyite, and very stiff."

Miss Winkworth gives an account of her conversation with Charlotte Bronte, and also Mrs. GaskelPs opinion of Mr. Nicholls, which is all to the good, but the concluding remark shows that those who knew her were not satisfied, and thought of Lucy Snowe.

 " But I guess the true love was Paul Emanuel, after all, and it is dead ; but I don't know, and don't think that Lily (Mrs. Gaskell) knows."

In the footsteps of the Brontes