ility of future loss, and was as a
pillar of cloud that followed them.

Miss Law, writing to Bessie on the 23d of January 1864, says:

I can indeed most fully enter into all you have felt and are
feeling still, under this dark shadow, which has fallen around you;
but surely by and by you will be enabled to see the light that must
be shining behind it. Oh, I do trust that the sad empty place in
all your hearts may each day be filled more and more with the
loving presence of Him who has sounded all the deepest depths of
human sorrow and suffering, that He might know how to feel for and
comfort us the better. Yes, you must indeed feel comforted already
in the thought of the fulness of her joy and rest and peace. I am
very glad your poor father has been so strengthened through his
great trouble; he is rich in having many loving children to help
and comfort him.... My book has been far more successful already
than I had expected; there have been several very nice reviews; we
are going to have them reprinted altogether, and then I will send
you a copy.... Some day I should like to know your thoughts about
my little poems, and which ones you like best among them. Dear Miss
Proctor [Adelaide] is still very ill, though at times she revives
wonderfully. I was able to see her twice when I was in town. She
writes to me now and then herself, and her sister Edith constantly.

Not long before Mrs. Gilbert's death the possible marriage of a younger
daughter had greatly interested her. She looked forward with confidence
to her child's future happiness, and when her own condition became
serious she begged that in no case might the marriage be postponed. It
was therefore solemnised in March 1864 as quietly as possible. This
sister, H----, had been for some years Bessie's special ally, and the
loss of her active help and unfailing sympathy was severely felt.

CHAPTER XVII

HOW THE WORK WENT ON

"He who has but one aim, and refers all things to one principle,
and views all things in one light, is able to abide steadfast, and
to rest in God."--THOMAS A KEMPIS.

Goods manufactured by the blind had been for some years advanced to
blind agents on a system known as "sale or return." This had proved
satisfactory so long as the agents were carefully selected. But there
had been some relaxation in the requisite caution, a