Note 94 — MINOR IDENTIFICATIONS OF PERSONS AND PLACES IN THE BRONTË WORKS.

The fact that towards the end great affection sprang up between the Rev. Patrick Brontë and his only surviving daughter cannot be too strongly emphasized. A most touching narration of him and the dying Currer Bell, related by Martha Brown, the Brontë servant, and herself the eye-witness, is given by Mr. William Scruton, in Thornton and The Brontës, page 133 (1898):—"When Charlotte heard her father coming upstairs to her, she would strain every nerve to give him a pleasing reception. On his entering the room she would greet him with, 'See, papa, I am looking a little better.'" Mr. Home was "papa" to Paulina. Compare the lightsome Paulina with the younger Catherine of Wuthering Heights; and Mrs. Home's death, Villette, chap, xxiv., with Mrs. Helstone's Shirley, chap. iv.