Page:The life of Charlotte Brontë (IA lifeofcharlotteb01gaskrich).pdf/243

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
INSIGHT INTO CHARACTER.
223

as Mr. ———. Before I knew, or suspected his character, and when I rather wondered at his versatile talents, I felt it in an uncontrollable degree. I hated to talk with him—hated to look at him; though as I was not certain that there was substantial reason for such a dislike, and thought it absurd to trust to mere instinct, I both concealed and repressed the feeling as much as I could; and, on all occasions, treated him with as much civility as I was mistress of. I was struck with Mary's expression of a similar feeling at first sight; she said, when we left him, 'That is a hideous man, Charlotte!' I thought 'he is indeed.'"