The Professor

IN two months more Frances had fulfilled the time of mourning for her aunt. One January morning--the first of the new year holidays--I went in a fiacre, accompanied only by M. Vandenhuten, to the Rue Notre Dame aux Neiges, and having alighted alone and walked upstairs, I found Frances apparently waiting for me.

Brother-break, Brussels schools, Frances, and marriage form a complete but lean arc — Villette's material in rehearsal scale — so plot scores 80.

DAILY, as I continued my attendance at the seminary of Mdlle. Reuter, did I find fresh occasions to compare the ideal with the real. What had I known of female character previously to my arrival at Brussels? Precious little.

Crimsworth, Frances, Reuter, and Pelet are functionally clear; Frances gathers interest as Crimsworth's cold eye warms, so cast scores 82.

I RE-ENTERED the town a hungry man; the dinner I had forgotten recurred seductively to my recollection; and it was with a quick step and sharp appetite I ascended the narrow street leading to my lodgings.

School-day repetition dominates; hunger, intrigue, and the January fetch supply modest accelerations without Villette's storm spikes, so pace scores 81.

THE other day, in looking over my papers, I found in my desk the following copy of a letter, sent by me a year since to an old school acquaintance:--"DEAR CHARLES, "I think when you and I were at Eton together, we were neither of us what could be called popular characters: you were a sarcastic, observant, shrewd, cold-blooded creature."

Exact, ironic first-person without gothic surplus — competent Charlotte craft below Jane Eyre's voltage — so prose scores 85.

And what was my notion of it? Something vague, slight, gauzy, glittering; now when I came in contact with it I found it to be a palpable substance enough.

X----shire, Pelet's house, and Reuter's seminary map Anglo-Belgian school life as Crimsworth's career climate, so world scores 84.

THE other day, in looking over my papers, I found in my desk the following copy of a letter, sent by me a year since to an old school acquaintance.

Desk-letter frame is efficient setup without the iconic chill of Jane's walk or Lucy's Bretton — inviting in irony rather than shock — so hook scores 78.

This little book was written before either "Jane Eyre" or "Shirley," and yet no indulgence can be solicited for it on the plea of a first attempt. A first attempt it certainly was not, as the pen which wrote it had been previously worn a good deal in a practice of some years.

Male school-romance draft of the Brussels material later transformed in Villette — historically innovative, artistically preliminary — so innov scores 83.

Now, Monsieur and Madame, if you don't come to tea, Victor and I will begin without you." "Papa, come!"

Mourning ended, Frances fetched, comic domestic tea — companionship earned and lightly closed — so ending scores 82.