Page:Emily Bronte (Robinson 1883).djvu/94

82 with a fierce satisfaction in her own ugly sleeves, in the Haworth cut of her skirts. She seldom spoke a word to any one; only sometimes she would argue with Monsieur Héger, perhaps secretly glad to have the chance of shocking Charlotte. If they went out to tea, she would sit still on her chair, answering "Yes" and "No;" inert, miserable, with a heart full of tears. When her work was done she would walk in the Cross-bowmen's ancient garden, under the trees, leaning on her shorter sister's arm, pale, silent—a tall, stooping figure. Often she said nothing at all. Charlotte, also, was very profitably speechless; under her eyes 'Villette' was taking shape. But Emily did not think of Brussels. She was dreaming of Haworth.

One poem that she wrote at this time may appropriately be quoted here. It was, Charlotte tells us, "composed at twilight, in the schoolroom, when the leisure of the evening play-hour brought back, in full tide, the thoughts of home:"

A little while, a little while,

The weary task is put away,

And I can sing and I can smile

Alike, while I have holiday.

Where wilt thou go, my harassed heart—

What thought, what scene invites thee now?

What spot, or near or far apart,

Has rest for thee, my weary brow?

There is a spot mid barren hills,

Where winter howls and driving rain;

But, if the dreary tempest chills,

There is a light that warms again.

The house is old, the trees are bare,

Moonless above bends twilight's dome,

But what on earth is half so dear—

So longed for—as the hearth of home?