He believed that he had to do with pupils capable,
from their ready sympathy with the intellectual, the refined, the
polished, or the noble, of catching the echo of a style, and so
reproducing their own thoughts in a somewhat similar manner.
After explaining his plan to them, he awaited their reply. Emily spoke
first; and said that she saw no good to be derived from it; and that, by
adopting it, they should lose all originality of thought and expression.
She would have entered into an argument on the subject, but for this, M.
Heger had no time. Charlotte then spoke; she also doubted the success of
the plan; but she would follow out M. Heger's advice, because she was
bound to obey him while she was his pupil. Before speaking of the
results, it may be desirable to give an extract from one of her letters,
which shows some of her first impressions of her new life.
"Brussels, 1842 (May?).
"I was twenty-six years old a week or two since; and at this ripe time of
life I am a school-girl, and, on the whole, very happy in that capacity.
It felt very strange at first to submit to authority instead of
exercising it--to obey orders instead of giving them; but I like that
state of things. I returned to it with the same avidity that a cow, that
has long been kept on dry hay, returns to fresh grass.
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