Chapter XXXIII., of Caroline and her lover that:--

The air was now dark with snow; an Iceland blast was driving it wildly. This pair neither heard the long "wuthering" rush, nor saw the white burden it drifted; each seemed conscious but of one thing--the presence of the other.

After the close of 1850, Charlotte Brontë resolved into the mood which was an earlier characteristic; and the choice of the name of Snowe for herself and the extraordinary tenacity with which she held to the name, having it re-inscribed in _Villette_ by the printers though she had herself changed it, show she had returned somewhat to that state in regard to her affection for M. Héger responsible for the passionateness of her _Wuthering Heights_. And as following the completion of _Villette_ she decided to marry a man she did not really love, I would say her mood was honestly in sympathy with that in which she wrote _Wuthering Heights_ through bitter, adverse circumstances and the warping of destiny, and did not result from Sydney Dobell's advice to her when, having read _Shirley_ and _Jane Eyre_, and despite her disclaimer in a preface, thinking she was the author of _Wuthering Heights_, he advised her to resume the frame of mind in which she had penned her _Wuthering Heights_.[88]

Dobell's supposition that she wrote the book had no connection whatsoever with my discovering Charlotte Brontë was the author of _Wuthering Heights_; neither had the fact that Miss Rigby--Lady Eastlake--in _The Quarterly Review_, spoke of _Wuthering Heights_ as "purporting to be written by Ellis Bell" but having "a decided family likeness to _Jane Eyre_," and with still more point, identified "Catherine and Heathcliffe of _Wuthering Heights_ as Jane and Rochester of _Jane Eyre_ in their native state." For I early found I must credit only the internal evidence of the Brontë works as my interpretative guide. Having written "The Key to _Jane Eyre_" nothing could prevent my discovery of that novel's kinship with _Wuthering Heights_; and so far back as August 29, 1902, I penned in a private letter enclosed with the proof sheets of my article to Mr. Harold Hodge, the editor of _The Saturday Review_, a confession that I was finding a strong kinship between the two novels. I owe to my persistent consciousness of this close kinship the fact that I finally discovered the amazing secrets of _Wuthering Heights_, and was enabled to state publicly in my _Fortnightly Review_ article of March 1907, Charlotte Brontë and none other wrote _Wuthering Heights_. It was then I turned with interest to the remarks of Sydney Dobell, the author of _Balder_, and "a notable figure in the history of English thought" as he has been named, whose review of Charlotte Brontë's works had resulted in her being acclaimed a leading author and a genius. It was in _The Palladium_ of September 1850 Sydney Dobell said:--

That any hand but that which shaped _Jane Eyre_ and _Shirley_ cut out the rougher earlier statues [in _Wuthering Heights_] we should require more than the evidence of our senses to believe; ... the author of _Jane Eyre_ need fear nothing in acknowledging these ... immature creations.[89]... When Currer Bell writes her next novel, let her remember ... the frame of mind in which she sat down to write her first [_Wuthering Heights_]. She will never sin so much against consistent drawing as to draw another Heathcliffe.... In _Jane Eyre_ we find ... only further evidence of the same producing qualities to which _Wuthering Heights_ bears testimony.

Charlotte Brontë warmly thanked him and protested. With eager honesty he again and again begged her to visit him and discuss the authorship of _Wuthering Heights_. Could Sidney Dobell but have been told the secret tragedy of Currer Bell's life and the bitterness of her cup, how he would have shrunk from inflicting her with an intrusive personal inquiry. And in all innocence he had asked her to revive the frame of mind in which, to use the words in _Jane Eyre_, her heart had been "weeping blood"!

_Wuthering Heights_ was wrought near the furnace of Charlotte Brontë's fiery ordeal, and gives at its intensest that which glows through her other works, finally to flash up and smoulder out in _Villette_. By reason of its clear portrayal of woman when she is very woman _Wuthering Heights_ towers above all common literary artistry, one of the finest novels in the world, an abiding monument to the vital genius of Charlotte Brontë. After her return from Brussels her life was a long human conflict, with vain regrets, vindictive recriminations, and luring memories opposing heroic commandings in the name of right and virtue. All honour to her that she fought to win!

Had Charlotte Brontë and M. Héger been characterless individuals of the common type who, knowing nothing of self-sacrifice and nobleness of life, yield to the call of immediate and unlicensed impulse, we could never have had these most vital representations, these most poignant revelations of the Martyrdom of Virtue--the works of our immortal Currer Bell. Her vehicle of confession--her dialect, was what men have termed fiction. But her heart was satisfied that truth has its ultimate appeal; and in the way of those sententious writers of old who garbed in an attractive vesture veritable and momentous records which would be preserved because they entertained, she gave the history of her life in a series of dramas we call the Brontë novels. For sixty years these have been read only as the creations of a brain that spun interesting fiction! Now, by aid of _The Key to the Brontë Works_, it is revealed they are more than this, and we discover the real greatness of Currer Bell and the high rank of her genius. Like that which creates the noblest and most enduring of the world's literature, the genius of Charlotte Brontë truthfully preserves the past, while it will intimately appeal to and have a salient lesson and an inspiring message for any one so ever who shall read, be it here and now, or in the time to come.