Part 24 (1/2)

It was dee the sad week that followed the death of her father She went to her elder sister, Mary, the beloved Mary of her youth, now the e household

She wrote with her own hand a short note to one of the sisters at the palace, which reassured them as to her condition

MILTON HILL, _28th March 1870_

MY DEAR SARAH--Thank you for all your letters As you say, all the preparations must be painful, but I am very thankful to hear you and Nora are pretty well You knoithout hts I hope to come back Tuesday or Wednesday, but Mary wants o till after Easter? I should like to know, because of what I s I think the appointood As for hts; but it is difficult to y or interest in anything I rite again aboutMary is really pretty well I think, the last day or two have beensister BESSIE

She returned to the palace but did not stay long, and spent the greater part of the twoChichester with her sister, Mrs Woods She went, however, to her old home in April, and left it finally with her brother and two un words greeted them on the day of their departure ”Wherever we are,” wrote one of the sisters, ”we shall all know that we are thinking of each other”

The house in Queen Anne Street was let at this time; two sisters went to St Leonards, but Bessie, with her faithful maid, took the much shorter and easier journey to Slinfold Rectory, near Horsham, the home of her sister Lucy, Mrs Sutton

She was sad and in very feeble health All the future seemed dark and uncertain; she could make no plans, she could not look forward At such a ti care of Mr and Mrs Sutton were very precious to her Insensibly, almost unconsciously, she was helped by the nu in their midst she learnt to know them intimately, and they cheered her and as, and they et herself and listen to theirl, also a Lucy, had always been a pet, and now became very dear to her From Slinfold she went to her sister fanny, Mrs Casson, at Torquay, and there found another kind brother-in-law, another large family of nephews and nieces, all ready to love and to wait upon the dear ”Aunt Bessie” Four houest, were thus open to her Hitherto her time had been divided between London and Chichester

She had not allowed herself the luxury of visits to married sisters, and had only seen them and their children on the occasion of their visits to the palace or London Now she began to be intimate with them, to be interested in the character and dispositions of the young people, and to enjoy the family life of which one and all helped to make her feel she was a athered around her and sought to coe her She preserved many letters which she prized and had found helpful One of the first to speak was the Rev H Broho held the living of Pevensey He was one of the Bishop's chaplains, the author of _Ordo Saecloruy, and, that which ood reader, and at Chichester had often read aloud Shakespere's plays to the _sisterhood_ Mr Browne noas the first to strike a note to which she could respond:

He rests from his labours and his works do follow him Yours remain It is needless for me to say it, for youhis mercies that a work had been raised up for you, which when father andof your life He evidently acknowledged this as God's calling to you, and as one of the thoughts in which he was greatly co forward upon your future life

Many other writers dwelt upon the unsparing labour and self-denying zeal of her father, and all recognised that she, the daughter so near his heart and always the object of his most tender love and watchful care, must be the one most deeply stricken by the pain of separation

”To you, I iine, the bloill come heaviest,” wrote Mrs Powell; and this sentiment is repeated in almost every letter

A letter fro her of a vote of condolence passed by the Coh, with

”I have the _pleasure_ to inform you,”

The blind workret at the death of ”his lordshi+p the Bishop,” and a note is enclosed to her by the Rev B Hayley, written by a poor fellow in the Chichester Union, ”just to shohat the poor, the very poorest in the diocese, think of your dear father”

The Rev Dr Swainson, Canon of Chichester, now Master of Christ's College, Cahtened by the fact that she had spent the last fortnight before her father's death in London, engrossed by the work of the Deputation to Lord de Grey His letter of sympathy and consolation may be as helpful to others as it was to her, and it is therefore inserted unabridged

SPRINGFIELD, NEWNHAM, CAMBRIDGE, _30th March 1870_

MY DEAR MISS GILBERT--I hope you will permit me to write you a few lines on the subject which I hear froard to the death of our dear father in God I ht of his life I really do not know that you should regret it: because it was really of God's appointed over your work for Him: your sisters over their work for Him: your dear father over his work for Him: each and all to the best of your powers, and why should you repine if it pleased God to re you beforehand that He was going thus to take him? May you not rejoice rather that his last days of consciousness were filled with thoughts that you were able to go on with that work in which he took so deep an interest, that soht that the best memorial of the love of the diocese to hithen your hands in that work? Of course I have often thought of the way in which my dearest father and dearest mother were taken away froret my absence Mrs Swainson was present at the removal of both her parents: but was not all this of God's appointuide us day by day, uides us? I a thus: the loss is indescribable, the centre of your earthly affections removed: on this I need not speak But I feel sure that you need not and you should not take any blame to yourself, because your work carried you away at the tied it, was pleased to call your father home--Believe me to be, my dear Miss Gilbert, ever yours very truly, C A

SWAINSON

The Bishop of Rochester wrote, ”His course, ever since he has been a bishop, has been so straightforward, so true, that he has won everybody's admiration and respect”

These and other tributes Bessie preserved and treasured They helped her, and after a time they comforted her In May we have one of the first letters written by her own hand, and speaking of her own feelings

It is addressed to a dear friend of the early Oxford days

SLINFOLD RECTORY, HORSHAM, _1st May 1870_