o support two sisters
and an aged mother until severe illness, fever, robbed him of sight and
hearing. He had regained health, but sat in one corner of the room
moaning "I am wretched, very wretched." Hearing no sound of his own
voice he had ceased to speak to others, and sat in silence, save for
these incessant moans, and in darkness; roused from time to time by a
push on the shoulder and a plate of food put into his hands. The sisters
did their best to support themselves and him by their needle, but he was
as one living in the grave, and he was only twenty-one.

Such a case excited Bessie's deepest compassion. In a single afternoon
Levy roused the poor fellow from almost hopeless despondency, and placed
him once more in communication with the world around; taught him the
letters of the dumb alphabet on his own hand, and spelt out the joyful
information that he could learn a trade and earn his living by it. He
did not readily believe this, but from that time the moans of "wretched,
very wretched" ceased. He was admitted at once as a pupil at Euston
Road, and learnt so rapidly that in six weeks he was able to write
letters to his friends. Also he had ceased to "spoil material," which is
the general occupation of learners for many months, and was earning
between four and five shillings a week; whilst at the end of a year he
was in receipt of excellent wages.

Bessie went frequently to the workshop "to talk to A." He would repeat
aloud the letters formed upon his hand, and guess words and even
sentences in a surprising manner. It was instructive to remark how soon
an intelligent listener knows all you are going to say, and how
unnecessary are many of our long explanations. Valuable lessons in
brevity and conciseness were to be learnt from A., and the blind and
deaf man soon brought you down to the bare bones of the information you
had to give. An angry glance was thrown away upon him, and finger talk
has no equivalent for that slight and incisive raising of the voice
which implies that the speaker intends a listener to hear him to the
end.

The slow, monotonous utterance of the deaf man, a pronunciation which,
as years passed on, became strangely unreal, and a sense of the
loneliness to which he was condemned, attracted much attention to this
intelligent man.

After a time he married. His wife, a widow with a little girl, was no
comfort to him; but the child soon became his inseparable and devoted
companion. When wor