BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _7th May 1859_.

MADAM--In reply to your letter of the 29th April, I have now the
pleasure to inform you that Her Majesty the Queen has been
graciously pleased to grant her patronage to the Association for
Promoting the General Welfare of the Blind, for which you have
shown so much sympathetic interest and so large and liberal a
benevolence.--I have the honour to be, madam, your obedient humble
servant, C. B. PHIPPS.

Miss Gilbert.

Bessie returned very dutiful acknowledgments and grateful thanks to the
Queen, who had for the second time granted her petition and rendered
signal service to her cause.

Henceforward, on the first page of annual reports, and on all bills and
notices, appear the magical words--

Patroness. Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen.

They were doubtless, as Bessie believed them to be, a tower of strength
to her, inspiring confidence, securing friends, bringing custom and
money.

Proud and happy too were the blind workmen as they sat round their
little table, cautiously dipping fibre into the boiling pitch. They
could reply to inquirers that orders had been received from Buckingham
Palace, from Osborne, and from Windsor Castle, and that they were
"making brooms for the Queen."

CHAPTER XIV

EVERYDAY LIFE

"Ce que peut la vertu d'un homme ne se doit pas mesurer par ses
efforts, mais par son ordinaire."--PASCAL.

In January 1859 Bessie, with a younger sister, paid a ten days' visit to
Fir Grove, Eversley, the home of her friend Miss Erskine. It was at this
time that she became personally acquainted with Charles Kingsley. She
heard him preach in his own church, and the sermon was one that she
always referred to with gratitude as having helped and strengthened
her.[7]

Miss Erskine remembers that Bessie walked and talked with Mr. and Mrs.
Kingsley, and that they learnt to love her dearly. They quickly
recognised the brave and faithful nature of the blind lady. "When you
have medicine to take you drink it all up," said Charles Kingsley.[8]
Never was there a truer remark.

She might, in the diary she was then keeping, have recorded many
interesting incidents connected with that visit. But she merely makes a
note of work done on behalf of the Association, and there is one
solitary mention of Mr. Kingsley's name--"talked to Mr. Kingsley about
the Museum." That she talked