systems, which took a
long time.

Relief printing for the blind is a subject beset with difficulty. In
every country where books are embossed for the blind there are two or
three different alphabets. There are systems in which dots and lines and
abbreviations take the place of letters; and there are systems where the
alphabet is enlarged and modified to suit the requirements of a person
who is going to read with fingers instead of eyes. The number of books
printed in relief is very small; and the result of using several systems
is that a blind reader finds that four out of five of the very small
number embossed are unintelligible. He can read Moon or Lucas or
Braille, but Frere and Howe and Alston and a host of others he cannot
decipher. Bessie spent much time upon the subject of relief printing,
and could read nearly everything printed for the blind. She thought that
Braille's was in itself the best system, but that Moon's was the only
one really useful to adults, more especially to those whose hands have
been hardened by labour. All except Moon's system must be acquired by
the young and sensitive fingers of a child. Bessie would have liked to
see the systems narrowed down to two, if not to one; but she found, as
many others have done, that it was impossible to obtain unanimity on
this point, as too many interests are involved in it. She made no
progress in the matter, and put it on one side.

On the 7th of July the diary tells us she was at the Repository giving
advice to "Martha."

Talked much to Martha about her proposed marriage. Told her to ask
if her intended husband would wish to go to Mr. Dixon on account of
his near sight, saying that if this stood in the way of his getting
something to do, and Mr. Dixon thought spectacles would help, he
should have them.... L. sent me papa's motto, "The fear of God and
no other." I had asked him to have it printed for the
boarding-house.

In August of this year Bessie paid a visit to Miss Bathurst, who with
her mother, Lady Caroline Bathurst, was then living at Stanmore. She met
there Lady Elizabeth Waldegrave and Miss Butler. A friendship formed at
that time with Miss Butler continued to the end of her life. She records
the meeting in her diary, adding, "talked about the Association."
Perhaps we should have been more surprised if she could have recorded
that she talked about anything else.

On the 10th of August she left L