[Gaskell relates how Charlotte Bronte presented her father with 'Jane Eyre'] ''May I read you some reviews.' So she read them; and then she asked him if he would read the book. He said she might leave it, and he would see. But he sent them an invitation to tea that night, and towards the end of tea he said, 'Children, Charlotte has been writing a book - and I think it is a better one than I expected.''