They were merry and social,
but they each knew that a gap, never to be filled, had been made in
their circle. They knew they had lost something whose absence could
never be quite atoned for, so long as they lived; and they knew that
heavy falling rain was soaking into the wet earth which covered their
lost darling; and that the sad, sighing gale was mourning above her
buried head. The fire warmed them; Life and Friendship yet blessed
them: but Jessy lay cold, coffined, solitary--only the sod screening
her from the storm."
This was the first death that had occurred in the small circle of
Charlotte's immediate and intimate friends since the loss of her two
sisters long ago. She was still in the midst of her deep sympathy with
"Mary," when word came from home that her aunt, Miss Branwell, was
ailing--was very ill. Emily and Charlotte immediately resolved to go
home straight, and hastily packed up for England, doubtful whether they
should ever return to Brussels or not, leaving all their relations with
M. and Madame Heger, and the pensionnat, uprooted, and uncertain of any
future existence. Even before their departure, on the morning after they
received the first intelligence of illness--when they were on the very
point of starting--came a second letter, telling them of their aunt's
death.
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