But to their surprise, Emily, whose dislike of strangers had always been violent, volunteered for that office. On their return from the moors Charlotte was nervous. “How did Emily behave?” she asked eagerly as soon as she could get Ellen aside. “Why, Emily had been very, very nice,” said Ellen in surprise.[3] Later in her life Ellen described Emily as maddeningly unsociable, but as having “a brilliant and very appealing sudden gaze when she allowed her eyes to be seen.” Immediately upon Ellen’s departure, Emily suffered an attack of erysipelas so severe that her arm had to be lanced, “accompanied—unromantically—by liver complaint.” The indication that her general health was not good Moore considers puzzling. Though living next to the pollution of an ancient graveyard and exposed to the unhealthy environment of Cowan’s Bridge [the original of the dreadful boarding school in Charlotte’s _Jane Eyre_] she had remained hale and strong from the age of five to the age of fifteen.[4] In view of modern psychosomatic theory, this illness is highly revealing, for skin and gall bladder complaints are recognized symptoms of emotional tension or disturbance. It seems fairly evident that Emily was strongly (even if perhaps unconsciously) drawn to Ellen Nussey. Under the circumstances the latter’s visit would have been a period of intense stimulation and strain. At the withdrawal of the exciting presence the nervous reaction was equally intense, and her body registered a deprivation which her proud and independent spirit would not willingly have admitted to consciousness.