Brontës (147 page)

Mistreated and misunderstood, Mr Nicholls was suddenly a much more interesting person to Charlotte than the quiet clergyman conscientiously but unremarkably performing his parish duties.

With passions in Church Lane running so high and the situation apparently irresolvable, Charlotte was glad to have the opportunity to run away and allow events to unfold in her absence. Gratefully taking up Mrs Smith's invitation to stay at Gloucester Terrace, Charlotte left Haworth early in the morning on 5 January 1853, and arrived in Euston Square at quarter past four that afternoon.
⁸⁴

It says something for the state of affairs at home that Charlotte could find sanctuary with George Smith and his mother, despite her anxieties about their reaction to their portrayals in
Villette
. Having come to some sort of an understanding with George Smith by letter, it was his mother whom Charlotte found most difficulty in facing. Her kind letter inviting Charlotte to London had provoked a regretful comment: ‘I almost wish I could still look on that kindness just as I used to do: it was very pleasant to me once.'
⁸⁵
The feeling which had gradually crept over her during the last year, that the kindness of her friends at Cornhill was not personal but merely a business arrangement to encourage her to produce another book, had extended to include Mrs Smith, her publisher's partisan mother,

Writing to Ellen almost a week after her arrival, Charlotte announced, ‘I have not much to tell you – nor is it likely I shall have – I do not mean to go out much or see many people.' Sir James Kay Shuttleworth had been as insistent as usual that he should be informed when she was in town so that he could escort her round, but she had no intention of letting him know that she was there until she was nearly at the end of her stay. ‘I really so much dread the sort of excited fuss into which he puts himself – that I only wish to see just as much of him as civility exacts.' Mrs Smith and her daughters appeared ‘pretty much as usual', but Charlotte was both startled and concerned to see the change in George Smith:

hard work is telling early – both his complexion, his countenance and the very lines of his features are altered – it is rather the remembrance of what he was than the fact of what he is which can warrant the picture I have been accustomed to give of him. One feels pained to see a physical alteration of this kind – yet I feel glad and thankful that it is
merely
physical: as far as I can judge mind and manners have undergone no deterioration – rather, I think, the contrary.
⁸⁶

During Charlotte's visit, she was to witness him going through one of his periodic stints of excessive work, and was later to look back on ‘that week
of over-work which occurred when I was in London' as ‘a thing not to be forgotten'.
⁸⁷

From the Smiths Charlotte was at last able to glean some news of James Taylor. They reported that he was getting on well in India, where his probity and usefulness were held in esteem, but that the hot climate was playing havoc with his temper and nerves: ‘it seems he is bad to live with – I never catch a pleasant word about him', she reported to Ellen, no doubt privately blessing the providence that had broken off their relationship.
⁸⁸

During this visit to London, which was to last a month, Charlotte passed her time very quietly, having the excuse of needing to correct the proofs of
Villette
to turn down invitations. She did make some excursions, however, and the fact that these were chosen by herself, rather than her hosts, accounted for their unusual nature. ‘Being allowed to have my own choice of sights this time –', she told Ellen, ‘I selected rather the real than the
decorative
side of Life.' She visited two prisons, the modern Pentonville and the ancient Newgate, where she got into trouble with the warders for taking pity on and talking to a poor girl ‘with an interesting face, and an expression of the deepest misery' who had killed her illegitimate child. She was also taken to see the financial centres of the City, the Bank of England and the Exchange, to the General Post Office and the offices of
The Times
newspaper and to both the Foundling Hospital for orphans and Bethlehem Hospital, better known as Bedlam, the institution for the insane. ‘Mrs S— and her daughters are – I believe – a little amazed at my gloomy tastes', Charlotte told Ellen with some amusement, ‘but I take no notice.'
⁸⁹

Charlotte's sudden and unprecedented interest in matters of social welfare may have been prompted by a nagging feeling of guilt. The ‘social novel' was very much in vogue, as Charlotte had recognized when sending George Smith the manuscript of
Villette
, telling him, somewhat apologetically:

You will see that ‘Villette' touches on no matter of public interest. I cannot write books handling the topics of the day – it is of no use trying. Nor can I write a book for its moral – Nor can I take up a philanthropic scheme though I honour Philanthropy – And voluntarily and sincerely veil my face before such a mighty subject as that handled in Mrs Beecher Stowe's work – ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin'.

To manage these great matters rightly they must be long and practically studied – their bearings known intimately and their evils felt genuinely – they must not be taken up as a business-matter and a trading-speculation.
⁹⁰

She took up a similar theme in her reply to Mrs Gaskell, whose work was imbued with her concern for the social evils of the day. Mrs Gaskell had written to plead for a delay in the publication of
Villette
, so that it would not come out at exactly the same time as her own new novel,
Ruth
, and attract invidious comparisons in the reviews. Charlotte readily persuaded George Smith to defer the publication, adding, ‘“Villette” has indeed no right to push itself before “Ruth”. There is a goodness, a philanthropic purpose – a social use in the latter, to which the former cannot for an instant pretend'.
⁹¹
Charlotte's visits to the prisons and hospitals were perhaps an attempt to remedy what she obviously saw as an omission in her work.

The publication of
Villette was
deferred until 28 January 1853. ‘I daresay – arrange as we may – we
shall
not be able wholly to prevent comparisons', Charlotte had written to Mrs Gaskell, ‘it is the nature of some critics to be invidious: but we need not care: we can set them at defiance: they
shall
not make us foes: they shall not mingle with our mutual feelings one taint of jealousy: there is my hand on that: I know you will give clasp for clasp.'
⁹²
On the day before and the day of publication, Charlotte busied herself in sending out inscribed copies to various friends. Ellen Nussey received one, as did Miss Wooler, inscribed ‘from her affectionate pupil'. John Forbes, the expert on consumptive diseases who had advised her on Anne's illness and had just escorted her round the Bethlehem Hospital, was also given a copy inscribed ‘in acknowledgment of Kindness'.
⁹³
Another recipient was Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, whom she had been unable to avoid and who had been in constant attendance during the last week of her visit. ‘I believe the gift perplexed him a little', Charlotte reported with malicious glee to Mrs Gaskell,

it seemed to imply that of course he would read the book. He took great pains to put into words a neat apology for not immediately giving himself that specially congenial pleasure. I hope some kind-hearted domestic has long ere this ‘sided' the volumes out of his reach – thus enabling him to sink into oblivion of their existence.
⁹⁴

Five days after the publication, before the first reviews appeared, Charlotte returned home. The visit had been as quiet as she could have wished and yet there was a lingering sense of disappointment. ‘My visit has on the whole passed pleasantly enough with some sorrowful impressions', she enigmatically reported to Ellen. One can only surmise that
Villette
had erected
a barely perceptible but nevertheless insuperable barrier between herself and the Smiths. The knowledge that they had unwittingly provided the raw material for her novel inevitably created a feeling of mutual unease. Perhaps the long hours George Smith spent in his office were an attempt to avoid seeing too much of her.
⁹⁵

It was hardly surprising that Charlotte was unable to face the prospect of returning home alone. In her absence, events had gradually come to a head. Patrick had written her two vitriolic letters, pouring out his venom on the unfortunate Mr Nicholls and hinting obliquely that he held her partly responsible for encouraging his curate's attentions.

You may wish to know, how we have been getting on here especially in respect to <
Man
, and>
Master
, and
Man
, On yesterday, I preached twice, but my man, was every way, very queer – He shun'd me, as if I had been a Cobra de Capello – turning his head from the quarter, where I was, and hustling away amongst the crowd, to avoid contact – It required no Lavater to see, that his countenance was strongly indicative of mortified pride, and malevolent resentment – People have begun to notice these things, and various conjectures, are afloat – You thought me too severe – but I was not candid enough – His conduct might have been excus'd by the world, in a confirmed rake – or unprincipled army officer, but in a
Clergyman
, it is justly chargeable, with base design \and/ inconsistency, – I earnestly wish that he had another and better situation – As I can never trust him any more, in things of importance – I wish him no ill – but rather good, and wish that every woman may avoid him forever, unless she should be determined on her own misery – All the produce of the Australian
Diggins
would \not/ make him and any wife he might have, happy –
⁹⁶

In his second letter, Patrick reverted to a formula he had used to pleasanter effect as a young man, writing to his daughter in the character of Anne's dog, Flossy. Though the letter was intended to be humorous, it was too savage and too insidious in its denigration of Mr Nicholls to be funny.

You have condescendingly sent your respects to me, for which I am very grateful, and in token of my gratitude, I struck the ground three times with my tail – But let me tell \to you/ my affairs … As many things are done before me, which would not be done, if I could speak, (well for us dogs that we cannot speak) so, I see a good deal of human nature, that is hid from those who have the gift of
language, I observe these manuoevres, and am permitted to observe many of them, which if I could speak, would never be done before me – I see people cheating one another, and yet appearing to be friends – many are the disagreeable discoveries, which I make, which \you/ could hardly believe if I were to tell them – One thing I have lately seen, which I wish to mention – No one takes me out to walk now, the weather is too cold, or \too/ wet for my master to walk in, and my former travelling companion, has lost all his apparent kindness, scolds me, and looks black upon me –
⁹⁷

Patrick's relentless campaign of vilification evidently extended to Mr Nicholls' failure to walk the parsonage dog. In these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the curate at last gave up and, in an uncharacteristically dramatic gesture, offered himself to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel as a missionary to the Australian Colonies of Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide. On the standard application form he was sent to fill in, he gave his reason for wanting to be a missionary as, ‘I have for some time felt a strong inclination to assist in ministering to the thousands of of[sic] our fellow Countrymen, who by Emigration have been in a great measure deprived of the means of grace.'
⁹⁸
‘Disappointment in love' was hardly the sort of motivation likely to appeal to the society.

On the form he listed six referees, all of whom were required to submit letters on his behalf. Their tributes were all more or less fulsome. Sutcliffe Sowden, the vicar of Hebden Bridge and a friend of eight years' standing, declared, ‘His character & conduct are above all reproach. His abilities are certainly more than average', and expressed his regret that if Nicholls succeeded in gaining the appointment, Sowden himself would lose by it ‘one of my most esteemed & respected neighbours'.
⁹⁹
Joseph Grant, incumbent of Oxenhope, took pains to point out how the church at Haworth had prospered since Nicholls' appointment: the National School had increased its scholars from sixty to between two and three hundred, church attendance had increased six-fold and in Stanbury he had been personally responsible for building a schoolroom used by both weekday and Sunday schools and as a place of worship where he took the Sunday service.
¹⁰⁰
William Cartman, Headmaster of the Grammar School at Skipton, in a long and generous tribute, expressed the general feeling.

for uprightness & steadiness of Conduct, Activity in the prosecution of his pastoral labours, Zeal & devotion to his ministrations, & \specially/ successful
management of the Parochial Schools in his Parish, there is not to [be] found his equal.

In the whole Course of my ministerial Career for the last 30 years, (& I do indeed speak advisedly) I never met with a young man whom in every respect as to his general demeanour & personal Qualities I so much admired.

Perhaps fearing that Patrick might do his curate less than justice in his reference, Cartman made a point of informing the society that ‘Mr Brontê has often detailed to me his invaluable services, & has frequently said, that shd. he leave him, he should not know how to supply his place'.
¹⁰¹
He need not have worried. Though Patrick could not work himself up into the enthusiastic tones of his fellow clergymen, neither could he be less than fair to the curate who had served him so well for the last eight years. During that time, NichoUs had