"I wanted to prove to Miss Lucy that I _could_ keep a secret. How often has she taunted me with lack of dignified reserve and needful caution! How many times has she saucily insinuated that all my affairs are the secret of Polichinelle!" And this had doubtless a reference to some such indiscretions as resulted in M. Sue whilst at Brussels (and he was publishing _L'Orgueil_ from Brussels in 1844, in the January of which year Charlotte Brontë arrived home from the Belgian capital), learning the literary secrets of _Jane Eyre_, and perhaps _Wuthering Heights_. A further reference to Currer Bell's literary aspirations--in the spirit of Mdlle. Reuter's sneers, in _The Professor_, at Mdlle. Henri's literary ambition--occurs in M. Sue's _feuilleton_ in another version of the fortune-telling incident of _Jane Eyre_:-- "Here," said I, to a brown, sunburnt damsel, ... "take this shilling and tell me when I shall be Empress of Morocco?" I held out my hand.... The young girl looked at it, ... then shook her head doubtfully:-- "Your life, lady, will be a troubled one--full of hopes and fears!" "So I suppose; most people's lives are pretty well divided in this manner." "But not so much as yours will be.... First, you are without father or mother?... Without fortune, too?" "True, what more?" "You will be married and not married." "That's impossible. What can you mean by married and not married?" "That deserves another shilling!" "No; I only want a shillingsworth, ... that will do for to-day." "Mdlle. Lagrange's Manuscript" was bound in blue morocco leather, and the term "Empress of Morocco" may have a reference to a literary ambition, as has the "Shakspeare's Day, I declare!" passage. For constructive purposes the West Indian girl, or Creole, in "Lagrange's Manuscript," is made to take the place of the Mrs. Rochester of _Jane Eyre_, who is therein represented as a Creole:--