The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-03-07

to be 1OrgOtJen py me, q Tiny, oeHC0tc, uI
tie person, whose small hand nevertheless
grasped mighty lever which set all the
literary world of that day vibrating. / can
still see the scene quite plainlyIthe hot
summer evening, the open windows, the
carriage driving to the door as we all sat
silent and expectant; my father, who rare
" waited, waiting with US; our governess
and my sister and all in row, and pre-
pared for the great event.
We saw the carriage stop, and out of 1t
sprang the active, well knit figure OF Mr..
George Smith, who was bringing Miss
Bronte to see our father. Ny father, who
had been walking up and down the room.
goes out into the hall to meet his guests,
and then after a moments delay the door
opens wide, and the two gentlemen come
in, leading tiny, delicate, serious little
lady, pale, with fair, straight hair and
steady eyes. She may be a little over thir-
ty: she is dressed in little barege dress
with pattern of faint green moss.
She enters in mittens, in silence, in Sc
robustness; our hearts are beating with
wild excitement. This, then, is the author
ess, the unknown power whose books have
set all London talking, reading, speculat-
the books-the wonderful books.
To say that we little girls had been given
"Jane Eyre" to read scarcely represents
the facts of the case, to say that we had
taken it without leave, read bits here and
read bits there, been carried away by an
undreamed of and hitherto unimagined
whirlwind into things, times, places, all
utterly absorbing and at the same time alb
solutely unintelligible to US, would more
accurately describe our states of mind on
that summers evening as we look at Jane
Eyre-the great Jane Eyre-the tiny little
lady.
The moment is so breathless that dinner
comes as relief to the solemnity of the
occasion, and we all smile as my father
stoops to offer his arm, for, genius though
she may be, Miss Bronte can barely reach
his elbow. My own personal impressions
are that she is somewhat grave and stern,
specially to forward little girls who wish
to chatter. Mr.. George Smith has since told
me how she afterward remarked upon my
fathers wonderful forbearance and gentle
ness with our uncalled for incursions into
the conversation. She sat gazing at him
with kindling eyes Of interest, lighting up
with sort of illumination every now and
then as she answered him. 1 can see her,
bending forward over the table, not eating,
but listening to what be said as he carved
the dish before him.
l think it must have been on this very
occasion that my father invited some of
his friends in the evening to meet Miss
Bronte-for everybody was interested and
anxious to see her. Mrs. Grove, the reciter
of ghost stories, was there. Mrs Brook
field Mrs. Carlyle, Mr.. Carlyle himself was
there, SO 1 am told, railing at the appear
ance of cockneys upon Scotch mountain
sides; there were also too many Americans
for his taste, "but the Americans were AS
God compared to the cockneys," says the
philosopher. Besides the Carlyles there
were Mrs. Elliott and Miss Perry, Mrs.
Proctor and her daughter, most of my
fathers habitual friends and companions.
In the recent life of Lord Houghton I was
amused to see note quoted in which Lord
Houghton was also convened. Would that
he had been present!-perhaps the party
would have gone off better. It was a
gloomy and silent evening
Every one waited for the brilliant con-
versatiOn which never began at all Miss
Bronte retired to the sofa in the study, and
low word now and then to
our kind governness, Miss Truelock. The
room looked very dark, the lamp began to
smoke a little, the conversation grew dim
mer and more dim, the ladies sat around
still expectant, my father was too much
perturbed by the gloom and the silence to
be able to cope with it at all.
Mrs. Brookfield, who was in the doorway
,%r la
Bronte was sitting, leaned forward with
little commonplace, since brilliance was
not to be the order of the evening do
you like London, Miss Bronte2" she said;
another silence, pause, then Miss Bronte
answers Eyes" and 'No" very gravely,
and there the conversation drops.
Ny sister and / were much too young to
be bored in those days; alarmed, impressed
we might be, but not yet bored. A party
was party, a lioness was lioness; and
shall confess it?-at that time an extra
dish of biscuits was enough to mark the
evening. We felt all the importance of
the occasion; tea spread in the dining
room, ladies in the drawing room; we
roaned about inconveniently, no doubt,
and excitedly and in one of my excursions
crossing the hall | was surprised to see my
father opening the front door with his hat
on. He put his fingers to his lips, walked
out intothe darkness, and shut the door
quietly behind him. When l went back
to the drawing room again the ladies asked
me where he was. Vaguely answered chat
| thought he was coming back.
/ was puzzled at the time, nor was it all
made clear to me till long years afterward,
do Mrc Drnrfar acl-ai 7
knew what had happened once when my
father had invited party to meet Jane
Eyre at his house. 1t was one of the dull
est evenings she had ever spent in her life,
she said And then, with good deal of
humor, she described the situation, the la
dies who all come expecting so much de-
lightful conversation, and the gloom and
the constraint. and how finally, over
by the situation, my father had
quietly left the room, left the house and
gone off to his club,
The ladies waited, wondered, and finally
departed also; and as we were going up to
bed with our candies after everybody was
gone, remember two pretty Miss L. s, in
shiny silk dresses, arriving, full of expec-
-asion. We still said we thought our
father would soon be back, but the Miss
IS declined to wait upon the chance,
laughed and drove away again almost i'm
medistely.
Since writing the preceding lines have
Fisited Jane Eyre-land, and stayed in the
delightful home where she used 70 stay
With Mrs. Gaskell. I have seen signs and
,okens Of her presence, faint sketches van
shing away, the delicate writing in the
book sine gave that warm friend; |
md | have also looked for and reread
ha .-1%r hat dtcGe
sketch" and most touching chapter in the |
book of Charlotte |
9ronte's happy married life. The paper is
signed wv. II. IT, 1t was written by the |
sdieor, and is printed in one OF the very
ssrhest numbers Of The Cornhill Maya |