"
And so her journey back to Haworth, after the rare pleasure of this visit
to her friend, was pleasantly beguiled by conversation with the French
gentleman; and she arrived at home refreshed and happy. What to find
there?
It was ten o'clock when she reached the parsonage. Branwell was there,
unexpectedly, very ill. He had come home a day or two before, apparently
for a holiday; in reality, I imagine, because some discovery had been
made which rendered his absence imperatively desirable. The day of
Charlotte's return, he had received a letter from Mr. ---, sternly
dismissing him, intimating that his proceedings were discovered,
characterising them as bad beyond expression, and charging him, on pain
of exposure, to break off immediately, and for ever, all communication
with every member of the family.
Whatever may have been the nature and depth of Branwell's sins,--whatever
may have been his temptation, whatever his guilt,--there is no doubt of
the suffering which his conduct entailed upon his poor father and his
innocent sisters. The hopes and plans they had cherished long, and
laboured hard to fulfil, were cruelly frustrated; henceforward their days
were embittered and the natural rest of their nights destroyed by his
paroxysms of remorse. Let us read of the misery caused to his poor
sisters in Charlotte's own affecting words:--
"We have had sad work with Branwell.
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