CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S FRIEND, TABITHA AYKROYD, THE BRONTËS' SERVANT, AS MRS. DEAN OF "WUTHERING HEIGHTS," AND AS BESSIE AND HANNAH OF "JANE EYRE." It is a remarkable fact that of all the members of Charlotte Brontë's home circle the one to whom, excepting herself, she gave most prominence in her works was Tabitha Aykroyd, the Brontës' servant or housekeeper. For I find this good woman was portrayed by Charlotte Brontë as Mrs. Dean of _Wuthering Heights_, Bessie and Hannah of _Jane Eyre_, and, on occasion, as Mrs. Pryor of _Shirley_. Indeed, strange though it may sound to say, my discovery that Tabitha Aykroyd, as she appealed to Currer Bell, was the original of these characters, alone explains the chief mystery of _Wuthering Heights_, and shows clearly enough Charlotte Brontë was its heroine and its author. In a word, we see by this discovery that _Wuthering Heights_ is book the first of Charlotte Brontë's life as told by herself from old Tabitha's standpoint, and _Jane Eyre_ book the second, giving her life's story and confession as related by herself entirely from her own point of view. Never in _Wuthering Heights_ did Nelly Dean really understand Catherine, and "the honest but inflexible servant," as Currer Bell calls Tabitha as Hannah of _Jane Eyre_, never yielded herself to a surrender of her rough-hearted but genuine nature wherein Charlotte was concerned. "Tabby," said Mrs. Gaskell, "had a Yorkshire keenness of perception into character, and it was not everybody she liked." That Tabitha Aykroyd would readily appeal to Charlotte Brontë as fitted for the narrator of the histories in _Wuthering Heights_ we may easily perceive by reading Mrs. Gaskell's further words on this Brontë servant:--