In the spring of it, Maria became so rapidly worse that Mr. Bronte was
sent for. He had not previously been aware of her illness, and the
condition in which he found her was a terrible shock to him. He took her
home by the Leeds coach, the girls crowding out into the road to follow
her with their eyes over the bridge, past the cottages, and then out of
sight for ever. She died a very few days after her arrival at home.
Perhaps the news of her death falling suddenly into the life of which her
patient existence had formed a part, only a little week or so before,
made those who remained at Cowan Bridge look with more anxiety on
Elizabeth's symptoms, which also turned out to be consumptive. She was
sent home in charge of a confidential servant of the establishment; and
she, too, died in the early summer of that year. Charlotte was thus
suddenly called into the responsibilities of eldest sister in a
motherless family. She remembered how anxiously her dear sister Maria
had striven, in her grave earnest way, to be a tender helper and a
counsellor to them all; and the duties that now fell upon her seemed
almost like a legacy from the gentle little sufferer so lately dead.
Both Charlotte and Emily returned to school after the Midsummer holidays
in this fatal year. But before the next winter it was thought desirable
to advise their removal, as it was evident that the damp situation of the
house at Cowan Bridge did not suit their health.
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