Everybody is abundantly civil, but home-sickness keeps creeping over me.

I cannot shake it off.

Believe me, very merrily, vivaciously, gaily, yours, "C.B." The _grandes vacances_ began soon after the date of this letter, when she was left in the great deserted pensionnat, with only one teacher for a companion.

This teacher, a Frenchwoman, had always been uncongenial to her; but, left to each other's sole companionship, Charlotte soon discovered that her associate was more profligate, more steeped in a kind of cold, systematic sensuality, than she had before imagined it possible for a human being to be; and her whole nature revolted from this woman's society.

A low nervous fever was gaining upon Miss Bronte.