certain sound business considerations. So much for internal evidence. Not that Mr. Malham-Dembleby relies on it altogether. He draws largely upon legend and conjecture, and on more "sensational discoveries" of his own. He certainly succeeds in proving that legend and conjecture in Brussels began at a very early date. Naturally enough it fairly flared after the publication of _Jane Eyre_. So far there is nothing new in his discoveries. But he does provide a thrill when he unearths Eugène Sue's extinct novel of _Miss Mary, ou l'Institutrice_, and gives us parallel passages from that. For in _Miss Mary_, published in 1850-51[A] we have, not only character for character and scene for scene, "lifted" bodily from _Jane Eyre_, but the situation in _The Professor_ and _Villette_ is largely anticipated. We are told that Eugène Sue was in Brussels in 1844, the year in which Charlotte left the Pensionnat. This is interesting. But what does it prove? Not, I think, what Mr. Malham-Dembleby maintains--that M. Héger made indiscreet revelations to Eugène Sue, but that Eugène Sue was an unscrupulous plagiarist who took his own where he found it, either in the pages of _Jane Eyre_ or in the tittle-tattle of a Brussels salon. However indiscreet M. Héger may have been, he was a man of proved gravity and honour. He would, at any rate, have drawn the line at frivolous treachery. Nobody, however, can answer for what Madame Héger and her friends may not have said. Which disposes of Eugène Sue. [Footnote A: Serially in the _London Journal_ in 1850; in volume form in Paris, 1851. It is possible, but not likely, that Eugène Sue may have seen the manuscript of _The Professor_ when it was "going the round".] Then there is that other "sensational discovery" of the Héger portrait, that little drawing (now in the National Portrait Gallery) of Charlotte Brontë in curls, wearing a green gown, and reading _Shirley_. It is signed Paul Héger, 1850, the year of _Shirley's_ publication, and the year in which Charlotte sat to Richmond for her portrait. There are two inscriptions on the back: "The Wearin' of the Green; First since Emily's death"; and below: "This drawing is by P. Héger, done from life in 1850." The handwriting gives no clue.