She managed in a most handsome and able manner for me, when I
was in Brussels, and prevented by distance from looking after my own
interests; therefore, I will let her manage still, and take the
consequences. Disinterested and energetic she certainly is; and if she
be not quite so tractable or open to conviction as I could wish, I must
remember perfection is not the lot of humanity; and as long as we can
regard those we love, and to whom we are closely allied, with profound
and never-shaken esteem, it is a small thing that they should vex us
occasionally by what appear to us unreasonable and headstrong notions.
"You, my dear Miss W---, know, full as well as I do, the value of
sisters' affection to each other; there is nothing like it in this
world, I believe, when they are nearly equal in age, and similar in
education, tastes, and sentiments. You ask about Branwell; he never
thinks of seeking employment, and I begin to fear that he has rendered
himself incapable of filling any respectable station in life; besides,
if money were at his disposal, he would use it only to his own injury;
the faculty of self-government is, I fear, almost destroyed in him.
You ask me if I do not think that men are strange beings? I do,
indeed. I have often thought so; and I think, too, that the mode of
bringing them up is strange: they are not sufficiently guarded from
temptation.
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