. She believed that honesty, goodness, and habits of
industry were constantly found beneath the garb of the blind beggar, and
that he must not be judged by the ordinary standard, because his
condition of idleness had been enforced, and was often of long
standing. She learned to know all the temptations to which the blind
were exposed, and whilst she fully recognised and acknowledged them, she
endeavoured to show a way of escape. In spite of many failures she could
point to individuals and families rescued from beggary and placed in a
position to which it had seemed impossible even to aspire.

Still, with all allowances which her wide charity and large experiences
were ready to make, it soon became apparent that a boarding-house for
blind men and women conducted by a blind man would not answer. Abuses
crept or rather leapt in, and Bessie, suffering and depressed, was
unable to intervene actively, as she would have done if her health had
permitted. There seemed to be no alternative, and the boarding-house was
closed.

Mrs. Powell, sister of the Rev. F. D. Maurice, and twin sister of Mrs.
Julius Hare, was one of Bessie's old and dear friends. She was a member
of the Committee of the Association, and took keen interest in its work.
We learn from her letters that Bessie was too ill to take part in the
arrangements for the workpeople at Christmas 1860, or to attend the
Committee meeting in January 1861. Mrs. Powell sends a prescription for
a plaster "which seems to do wonders in neuralgia, and in soothing the
brain after there has been any strain upon it."

Miss Bathurst also writes frequently at this time. "How earnestly I hope
sleep may be given back to you," she says. "Those long nights of waking
will try you sorely." She tells of a sermon preached by Mr. Maurice on
the text, "Endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit," and how he had
dwelt on the change in the meaning of the word endeavour since it was
first used by the translators, and that it was at that time a word full
of energy, implying, "Put out all your force as for something which you
are capable of accomplishing."

But Bessie was in no condition to receive encouragement from words which
would at another time have roused her like the call of a trumpet.

The day of endeavour was for the present at an end; weary months passed
on, and her condition was unchanged. An abscess formed in the lower jaw,
and, after consultation, it was resolved to remove eleven tee