Devotion Page #9

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However. I will drop in this evening

and take a look at your "discovery".

As you quite mistakenly call Mr Bell.

Thackeray .. I can tell you now

what Currer Bell looks like.

He's a tall, slim sensitive man.

With a profound understanding of women.

Nonsense.

The author of Jane Eyre is

unquestionably short and stout.

A middle-aged romantic.

Frustrated by fifty years in the dismal

dampness of a Yorkshire Vicarage.

May I ask how you happen to know that

Mr Bell comes from a Yorkshire Vicarage?

By glancing through your correspondence

while you kept me waiting the other day.

I had to occupy myself somehow.

Well, really ..

Now don't explode, Smith.

Authors get some of their best material

by a careful perusal of letters ..

Not intended for them.

My carriage, please.

Yes, sir.

I think you have behaved monstrously, and

if you dare say a word to the pressmen ..

Don't worry my dear Smith, I have

no intention of becoming involved ..

In a vulgar exploitation.

And now gentlemen, if you will

come with me to my office.

Could you please tell me

when I might see Mr Smith?

I've been waiting here for some time

but it seems difficult to get attention.

My dear young lady, I'm afraid

you will not get attention today.

Mr Smith, with his fellow fudgers

of the press, is lying in ambush.

Awaiting the arrival of his

next victim. One "Currer Bell".

Good heavens.

I never expected there would

be such a fuss over my ..

Well ..

Oh ..

So you are Currer Bell?

Yes.

But I must confess I was not quite

prepared for .. for this ordeal.

A most understandable point

of view, my dear young lady.

You are probably thoroughly

fatigued after your journey.

Now, if you will come with me.

Than you, but I don't think the gentlemen

of the press like to be kept waiting.

On the contrary, my dear young lady.

Such treatment is meat and

drink to their servile souls.

What you need first of all,

is a little refreshment.

Which I will undertake to provide.

But I do not know you, sir.

Oh yes you do. My name is "Thackeray".

Not the great Thackeray?

Aren't we being a little

personal, my dear?

I think Emily would like

the Cheshire cheese.

Why didn't your genius sister come with

you to receive the homage of London?

She's not been in very

good health lately.

But I doubt if she would have come

anyway. She detests crowds.

I thought so.

One gathers that in her book.

But I think she's every happy in

that strange, lonely world of hers.

She's never had the slightest desire to

meet anyone outside the family, you know.

Indeed.

Then, if it is not a too

impertinent a question.

How did she come to experience

so great and tragic a love?

Tragic love?

Emily is the most loving and

loveable person in the world.

But if you are implying that she's

experienced a great, romantic passion.

I can assure you that

such is not the case.

When .. did you last

read Wuthering Heights?

I'm going to make the most

terrible confession, Mr Thackeray.

I never have read it all.

Well, you should.

It's quite good, you know.

One could imagine you've

been doing this all your life.

I have been dreaming it all my life.

Well?

Jane Eyre seems to have stepped

into the pages of Vanity Fair.

Good morning, Thackeray.

Good morning, Dickens.

Charles Dickens.

And you never introduced me!

I shouldn't like you to get mixed up

with that kind of riff-raff, my dear.

Bennett.

What does it feel like to be a lion?

I depends entirely upon the keeper

and the food, Mr Thackeray.

If you continue to be so penetratingly

intelligent, you'll never be happy, child.

Do they always stare at

you like that in public?

They're staring at you, my dear.

Oh.

But throughout it all, I could not help

but think how Branwell would have laughed.

Well, as she seems to have

accomplished everything.

Yes, everything.

Except the one thing nearest her heart.

My brother Branwell always said ..

That riding a path with Thackeray

would be the height of success.

He was quite right, of course. It is.

But you're not looking at the

height of anything at the moment.

I was wondering if you would ever walk

with me on the moors of Haworth?

Ha?

Moors were intended to be

written about. Not walked on.

Are you so fearful of

not being recognised ..

That you must take your novel

out driving with you, Miss Bront?

Oh, this is for a friend.

Mr Thackeray, how far

is it to the East End?

East End? Oh, geographically,

about four miles.

Socially, over a thousand.

You are not suggesting

we go there, are you?

Miss Bront, I have a sincere

regard for you as an author.

And a deep affection as a friend.

But if you imagine I am going

to take you to the East End ..

A district inhabited exclusively

by thieves and cut-throats.

There your imagination

is even more fanciful ..

Than some of your purple

passages in Jane Eyre suggest.

And that is saying a good deal.

This is where your Parson friend lives?

Yes. This is the address.

Not a very good one, I fear.

Aren't you coming in

with me, Mr Thackeray?

No my dear. I think I'll stay

here and admire this pretty view.

Not my public.

[ door knocks ]

There is a lady to see you, sir.

This is indeed a pleasure, Miss Bront.

I felt that ..

I could not leave London without

finding out how you were faring.

And Mr Thackeray very graciously

consented to drive me down here.

That was very kind of him.

I .. I've brought you a

first edition of my novel.

I shall treasure this copy.

I have, of course, read the novel.

It is the beautiful piece

of work I knew it would be.

So it has all turned out

exactly as you planned.

Not exactly.

You see, I thought I would be happy.

I must not keep Mr Thackeray

waiting any longer.

Mr Nicholls.

At our last meeting you said that ..

I would one day understand.

I'm afraid that day is still to dawn.

I believed ..

But then, you know what I believed.

You believe truly.

Then tell me.

I love you.

I've always loved you.

Oh, what was it?

What barrier stood

between us for so long?

I left Haworth ..

Because Miss Emily offered

me a love I could not return.

Emily.

[ Thackeray's voice ]

"How did she come to experience

so great and tragic a love?"

"When did you last read

Wuthering Heights?"

Oh .. Emily.

"It has been a wonderful experience."

"Everybody has been most kind.

Mr Thackeray, especially so."

"On Tuesday, I visited the

National Portrait Gallery."

"And saw many pictures

of uncommon beauty."

Doctor Barnes has been with Emily

a dreadfully long time, hasn't he.

Doctor Barnes is a very

thorough and painstaking man.

We should only be thankful that Emily

has at last consented to see him.

I'm not. If Emily has finally consented

to see a doctor can only mean ..

Enough of that talk, Miss.

Proceed with the letter.

"I had hoped by this time, that Anne and

Emily would have been able to join me."

"Surely, Emily is sufficiently

recovered by now to .."

I can't go on .. I really can't.

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