Brontës (127 page)

‘I am trying by degrees to inure myself to the thought of \some day/ stepping over to Keighley, taking the train to Leeds – thence to London – and once more venturing to set foot in the strange, busy whirl of the Strand and Cornhill', she wrote to Williams on 15 November. ‘I want to talk to you a little and to hear by word of mouth how matters are progressing – Whenever I come – I must come quietly and but for a short time – I should be unhappy to leave Papa longer than a fortnight.'
⁵⁴
Charlotte could now consider leaving her father alone with the servants for two weeks, without even a second thought, when it suited her own plans.

Her original idea was to take up a long-standing invitation from the Wheelwrights, her Brussels friends, who now lived at 29, Phillimore Place in Kensington: that was until something better turned up. Hearing that she intended to come to London, George Smith himself wrote to her, suggesting that she should stay with him and making his mother write to second the offer. Charlotte leapt at the chance. Somewhat disingenuously telling Smith that at first she had thought she would have to decline because of her prior invitation, she then went on to declare:

these friends only know me as Miss Brontë, and they are of the class, perfectly worthy but in no sort remarkable – to whom I should feel it quite superfluous to introduce Currer Bell; I know they would not understand the author. Under these circumstances my movements would have been very much restrained, and in fact this consideration formed a difficulty in the way of my coming to London at all. I think however I might conscientiously spend part of the time with you and part with my other friends.
⁵⁵

She was even prepared to defer her visit to the Wheelwrights in order to
come at a more convenient time for the Smiths. In the meantime, she sent for a dressmaker and had her prepare a whole new wardrobe of clothes, from dresses down to underclothes: this time, even though she was still obliged to wear mourning, she would not be caught going to the opera in her ‘plain – high-made, country garments'.
⁵⁶

Charlotte's eagerness to stay with the Smiths in London was a manifestation of what Mary Taylor called her ‘notion of literary fame – a passport to the society of clever people'.
⁵⁷
It was also a sign of her growing friendship with George Smith. Although most of her correspondence with Smith, Elder & Co. had been with Williams, she had been favourably disposed towards its young head since she first met him during the ‘pop visit' with Anne. Over the last few months, however, their friendship had burgeoned over the unlikely matter of Charlotte's seeking George Smith's advice on her investments. Writing to thank him for the £500 he had sent her on the completion of
Shirley
, she told him she felt both pleased and proud of the amount she had earned. ‘I should like to take care of this money:' she informed him earnestly, ‘it is Papa's great wish that I should realize a small independency if you could give me a word of advice respecting the wisest and safest manner of investing this £500, I should be very much obliged to you.' She could not, of course, apply to her ‘ordinary acquaintance' for information, as this would naturally lead to speculation about the source of her new-found fortune. George Smith advised Charlotte to place her money in the Funds, where it would earn an unspectacular but safe dividend, and offered to make all the necessary arrangements on her behalf.
⁵⁸
He also, at her request, investigated the value of her shares in the York & North Midland Railway in the wake of the recent crash in prices. She was shocked to learn that her holding was now virtually worthless: ‘In fact', she told him,

the little railway property I possessed, according to original prices – formed already a small competency for one with my views and habits, now – scarcely any portion of it can with security be calculated on. I must open this view of the case to my father by degrees, and meantime wait patiently until I see how affairs are likely to turn. Some of the local papers strenuously advise against selling just now; they affirm that the market is far more depressed than it otherwise would be, by the fact of shareholders hurrying to sell, in a panic.
⁵⁹

There was a kindness in George Smith's attentions and a comfort in placing her financial affairs in his obviously capable hands for Charlotte, who
was feeling increasingly isolated at Haworth. She knew she was assured of his protection in London and, judging by his reaction to her first visit, that she could rely on him to entertain her.

Retracing the steps of the ‘pop visit', but this time alone, Charlotte travelled by train to London on Thursday, 29 November 1849, and was taken to the Smiths' house in Westbourne Place, Paddington. Her publisher's family had now been admitted into the secret of their guest's true identity. ‘Mrs Smith received me at first like one who has had the strictest orders to be scrupulously attentive –', Charlotte told Ellen,

I had fire in my bedroom evening and morning – two wax candles – &c. &c. and Mrs S & her daughters seemed to look on me with a mixture of respect and alarm – but all this is changed – that is to say the attention and politeness continue as great as ever – but the alarm and estrangement are quite gone – she treats me as if she liked me and I begin to like her much – kindness is a potent heart winner.
⁶⁰

Of George Smith himself, Charlotte would only say ‘he pleases me much: I like him better even as a son and brother than as a man of business', a comment that instantly drove Ellen to romantic speculations which Charlotte just as quickly quashed.
⁶¹
The first four or five days in the ‘big Babylon', as Charlotte termed London, passed in ‘a sort of whirl … for changes, scenes and stimulus which would be a trifle to others, are much to me'. Her days were spent in sightseeing, her evenings ‘in society', an arrangement which swiftly wore down her slender stock of animal spirits. ‘Nothing charmed me more during my stay in Town', she later wrote to Miss Wooler, ‘than the pictures I saw – one or two private collections of Turner's best water-colour drawings were indeed a treat: his later oil-paintings are strange things – things that baffle description.'
⁶²

She was also taken to see the great actor, William Charles Macready, whose performances in Shakespearean tragedy were the talk of London. Charlotte saw him twice, in
Macbeth
and
Othello
, and was not impressed. ‘I astounded a dinner-party by honestly saying I did not like him', she told Miss Wooler with the quiet satisfaction of one who was proud of her dissent. ‘It is the fashion to rave about his splendid acting – anything more false and artificial – less genuinely impressive than his whole style I could scarcely have imagined.' She had added to the general consternation by attacking the stage system itself: actors could manage farce well enough but
they knew nothing about tragedy or Shakespeare and the theatre was therefore a failure. ‘I said so – and by so saying produced a blank silence – a mute consternation.'
⁶³

Williams took her on a tour of the new Houses of Parliament and later invited her for a quiet evening at his home, where she was at last introduced to his wife, who had been ill on her previous visit, and renewed her acquaintance with his daughters.
⁶⁴
The Wheelwrights, too, though Charlotte seems to have abandoned her plans to stay with them, invited her to lunch at their home.
⁶⁵
Though grateful for these kindnesses, her first meetings with the stars of the literary firmament meant far more to Charlotte than the renewing of old friendships.

The highlight of her stay was the Smiths' dinner party on the evening of 4 December when, for the first time, she came face to face with her hero, Thackeray. She had spent the whole day in a mixture of dread and anticipation, too nervous even to eat. By the time Thackeray was announced at seven in the evening, she had been fasting since breakfast, and was faint from hunger. ‘Excitement and exhaustion together made savage work of me that evening', she told Ellen miserably. Recalling that meeting later, it seemed unreal: ‘when Mr Thackeray was announced and I saw him enter, looked up at his tall figure, heard his voice the whole incident was truly dream-like – I was only certain it was true because I became miserably destitute of self-possession … Had I not been obliged to speak, I could have managed well, but it behoved me to answer when addressed and the effort was torture – I spoke stupidly'.
⁶⁶
Thackeray himself seems to have been touched by Charlotte's evident nervousness, her vulnerability emphasized by her tiny size compared to his own great height and bulk. What he remembered was ‘the trembling little frame, the little hand, the great honest eyes', declaring that ‘An impetuous honesty seemed to me to characterize the woman.'
⁶⁷
He was later to be a victim of that honesty but, on this occasion, Charlotte was so overawed by her ‘Titan's' presence that she remained subdued and silent. Writing to her father the next day, she gave him a graphic account of that evening.

yesterday I saw Mr Thackeray. He dined here with some other gentlemen. He is a very tall man – above six feet high, with a peculiar face – not handsome – very ugly indeed – generally somewhat satirical and stern in expression, but capable also of a kind look. He was not told who I was – he was not introduced to me – but I soon saw him looking at me through his spectacles and when we all
rose to go down to dinner – he just stept quietly up and said ‘Shake hands' so I shook hands – He spoke very few words to me – but when he went away he shook hands again in a very kind way.
⁶⁸

Thackeray's satirical conversation both fascinated and baffled Charlotte, who found it almost impossible to tell when her hero was joking. When the gentlemen entered the drawing room, for instance, he asked her ‘if she had perceived the secret of their cigars'. Charlotte answered literally and then realized, as several people smiled, that Thackeray had been alluding to a passage in
Jane Eyre
. ‘It is better – I should think to have him for a friend than an enemy –', she told her father, ‘for he is a most formidable looking personage. I listened to him as he conversed with the other gentlemen – all he says is most simple but often cynical, harsh and contradictory.'
⁶⁹

Five days later, on Sunday, 9 December, Charlotte paid a visit to another of the great and equally formidable literary figures of the day, Harriet Martineau, a novelist and author of essays on political economy. Charlotte herself seems to have requested the interview on learning that Miss Martineau was staying with her cousins, Richard and Lucy Martineau, in Westbourne Street, just round the corner from the Smiths' residence. Charlotte had long admired Miss Martineau, chiefly on account of her novel
Deerbrook
. In the letter accompanying the copy of
Shirley
she had sent her, Charlotte had inadvertently referred to herself as ‘she' but crossed this out and replaced it with ‘he'. This mistake only confirmed Miss Martineau in her belief that ‘a certain passage in “Jane Eyre”, about sewing on brass rings, could have been written only by a woman or an upholsterer'. She had therefore responded by addressing her reply externally to ‘Currer Bell Esqre' but had begun her letter ‘Madam'. Charlotte had not reciprocated by admitting Miss Martineau to her confidence as she had Mrs Gaskell, so when ‘Currer Bell's' note arrived the Martineaus were still no wiser. The note expressed ‘a very strong wish to see you' and declared, ‘Do not think this request springs from mere curiosity. I hope it has its origin in a better feeling. It would grieve me to lose this chance of seeing one whose works have so often made her the subject of my thoughts.'
⁷⁰

In great excitement, the Martineaus invited ‘Currer Bell' to join them for an early tea at six o'clock and spent the interval trying to guess what their visitor would be like. Harriet, who was very deaf and relied on an ear trumpet, insisted that her cousins should shout the name to her when the visitor
was announced so that she was not left in doubt a moment longer than necessary. Lucy Martineau described Charlotte's entrance in a letter to her son the next day:

I lighted plenty of candles that we might see what manner of man or womankind it was, & we sat in wondering expectation … The hand pointed to 5 minutes past six, & we said it is a hoax after all! When lo! a carriage stopped at the door, the bell rung, and Yelland flung open the door announcing – –! & in came a neat little woman, a very little sprite of a creature nicely dressed; & with nice tidy bright hair – Tho' the cat was out of the bag here, we are bound not to tell her name, for she does not wish it to be made generally known, sooner than it of necessity will be – & that will not be long I expect. Her voice and way of speaking, somehow in the upper part of her nose, is
extremely
like the Miss Mitchells …
⁷¹

Harriet Martineau herself thought Charlotte ‘the smallest creature I had ever seen (except at a fair) and her eyes blazed'. Like Lewes, and possibly through him, the Martineaus had heard the gossip identifying ‘Currer Bell' as Charlotte Brontë and therefore, when her name was announced, they already knew something of her history. What Harriet Martineau had not anticipated was a moment she graphically described in her
Autobiography
.

When she was seated by me on the sofa, she cast up at me such a look, – so loving, so appealing, – that, in connexion with her deep mourning dress, and the knowledge that she was the sole survivor of her family, I could with the utmost difficulty return her smile, or keep my composure. I should have been heartily glad to cry.
⁷²

After tea, the two authoresses were left alone together and discussed the reviews of Charlotte's books, ‘the little sprite' going ‘red all over with pleasure' when Miss Martineau declared
Jane Eyre to
be a first-rate book. Their hosts rejoined them a couple of hours later, Lucy Martineau reporting that ‘she was so pleasant & so naive, that is to say so innocent and un Londony that we were quite charmed with her … Her age we imagined to be about 32, some of us think younger, some older.'
⁷³