Charlotte's own words, with regard to Emily, are:-- "After the age of twenty, having meantime studied alone with diligence and perseverance, she went with me to an establishment on the continent.

The same suffering and conflict ensued, heightened by the strong recoil of her upright heretic and English spirit from the gentle Jesuitry of the foreign and Romish system.

Once more she seemed sinking, but this time she rallied through the mere force of resolution: with inward remorse and shame she looked back on her former failure, and resolved to conquer, but the victory cost her dear.

She was never happy till she carried her hard-won knowledge back to the remote English village, the old parsonage-house, and desolate Yorkshire hills." They wanted learning.

They came for learning.