success was received by one so unaccustomed to adopt a sanguine view of any subject in which she was individually concerned. The occasions on which these notes were written, will explain themselves.
MESSRS. SMITH, ELDER, AND CO.
"Gentlemen,—The six copies of 'Jane Eyre' reached me this morning. You have given the work every advantage which good paper, clear type, and a seemly outside can supply;—if it fails, the fault will lie with the author,—you are exempt.
"I now await the judgment of the press and the public. I am, Gentlemen, yours respectfully,
MESSRS. SMITH, ELDER, AND CO.
"Gentlemen,—I have received the newspapers. They speak quite as favourably of 'Jane Eyre' as I expected them to do. The notice in the 'Literary Gazette' seems certainly to have been indited in rather a flat mood, and the 'Athenæum' has a style of its own, which I respect, but cannot exactly relish; still when one considers that journals of that standing have a
