The Times published on Tuesday four letters, which were believed
to have been destroyed, from Charlotte Brontë to Professor Constantin Heger, of Brussels. We are glad to say that the original letters have been generously presented to the British Museum by Dr. Paul Heger, the Professor's son. The interest of the letters lies in the fact that they define clearly for the first time the relations between Charlotte BrontS and Constantin Heger, relations as to which some totally unreasonable suspicions have been nourished by some critics.
These four letters, written in 1844 and 1845 after Charlotte Bronte's departure from Brussels, show very clearly the com- plete innocence of their writer's feelings towards the elderly married professor who was the unsympathetic object of her affection. But none the less her devotion was as passionate as we should have expected from the author of Jane Eyre, as may be seen from this short quotation :—
"Je ne veux pas relire cette lettre—je reirsoie comme je l'ai ecrite—Pourtant, j'ai comma la conscience obscure qu'il y a des personnes froides et sensees qui diraient en la lisant—' elle deraisonne'—Pour toute vengeance—je souhaite ces personnes- un seal jour des tourments qua j'ai subis depuis huit 1110i8—on verrait alors s'dles ne deraisonneraient pas de memo."
We must confess that there is something painful in the reading of words like these.
Previous page
