The Brontes

56 THE BRONTES
Kingdom of Angria. His contributions, usually
wildly imaginative, confused, contradictory and
verbose, Charlotte accepted without question and
transmuted by her genius into an integral, natural
and permanent part of the whole. Indeed, no
character, no situation, whether of Charlotte's or
BranwelTs creation, was ever lost, so easily and
naturally did each catch up and use the concep-
tion of the other that it is impossible to separate
their contributions with certainty." In another
draft article which the present writer has been
privileged to see, Miss Ratchford says : " Char-
lotte, during the three years between her school-
days and teaching days at Roe Head, was living
a life of golden romance, walking with kings,
guiding the destinies of a mighty empire, and
receiving the plaudits due to genius from an ad-
miring world," and she goes on to quote secret
outpourings written by Charlotte, when at Roe
Head again as a teacher, showing what she
suffered in exile from Angria and deprived of the
excitement of her conjurings with BranwelL The
following are extracts :
" Once more, on a dull Saturday afternoon, I
sit down to try and summon around me the dim
shadows of incidents long departed, of feelings, of
pleasures whose exquisite relish I feel it will never
be my lot again to taste. How few would believe
that from sources purely imaginary such happiness
could be derived. Pen cannot portray the deep in-
terests of the scenes ... I have witnessed in that
little room with the low, narrow bed and bare,
whitewashed walls, twenty miles away. There