Page:The life of Charlotte Brontë (IA lifeofcharlotteb02gaskrich).pdf/189

"Dark when I got to Windermere station; a drive along the level road to Low-wood; then a stoppage at a pretty house, and then a pretty drawing-room, in which were Sir James and Lady Kay Shuttleworth, and a little lady in a black-silk gown, whom I could not see at first for the dazzle in the room; she came up and shook hands with me at once. I went up to unbonnet, &c.; came down to tea; the little lady worked away and hardly spoke, but I had time for a good look at her. She is (as she calls herself) undeveloped, thin, and more than half a head shorter than I am; soft brown hair, not very dark; eyes (very good and expressive, looking straight and open at you) of the same colour as her hair; a large mouth; the forehead square, broad, and rather overhanging. She has a very sweet voice; rather hesitates in choosing her expressions, but when chosen they seem without an effort admirable, and just befitting the occasion; there is nothing overstrained, but perfectly simple. . . . . After breakfast, we four went out on the lake, and Miss Brontë agreed with me in liking Mr. Newman's 'Soul,' and in liking 'Modern Painters,' and the idea of the 'Seven Lamps;' and she told me about Father Newman's lectures at the Oratory in a very quiet, concise, graphic way. . . . . She is more like Miss ——— than any one in her ways—if you can fancy Miss ——— to have gone through suffering enough to have taken out every spark of merriment, and to be shy and silent from the habit of extreme, intense solitude. Such a life as Miss Brontë's I never heard of before. ——— described her home