The ‘religious conference’ was at Stoke, a little village in Shropshire, where the rector, the Rev. Rowland Corbet, was in the habit of gathering some who were earnestly studying the difficult questions of the day. Miss Beale wrote of these gatherings in the letter already quoted:— ‘There are only about twelve staying in the house. No one is put out of the synagogue for not seeing the truth, and they are not afraid to ask questions, but none are invited who are not supposed to be seeking for the light.’ That a door to the light was at this conference quickly opened for Miss Beale may be seen in the letters she wrote, on her return to Cheltenham after it was over, to the friends who had helped her so much:— ‘_August 19, 1882._ ‘DEAR MR. CORBET,—I could not say one word of thanks this morning: I think you understood. ‘It is good for us tempest-tossed people to see the restful faith of the veterans who come to help us. Certainly the old ship in which I have somehow sailed upon the waves for so many years is a wreck. I must try to believe He will set my feet upon a rock. ‘Yesterday things began to get clearer: your kind and patient explanations of the alphabet of the spiritual made me follow the discussion better afterwards, and I felt I could begin again to join in the Church’s Creed with a deeper meaning than before. I suppose one can’t expect to come out of the grave at once,—but how different is this Saturday from last, it seems as if some æon had gone by. I don’t know yet what I think, except that I believe I shall see the light and rise and always remain, yours very gratefully, D. BEALE.’ To Mrs. Russell Gurney:— ‘_August 27, 1882._ ‘DEAR MRS. RUSSELL GURNEY,—I have had such a happy Sunday,—I can hardly believe it is the same earth that seemed to me so dead the week before, when I could not go to Church, but wandered about quite desolate. ‘Three weeks ago, if any one had spoken, as I am doing now, I should have thought it superstitious, and I don’t think it will be well either for myself or others to speak much of it now, only to one who, like you, understands—and who helped to take off the “grave-clothes.” ‘I want to use my limbs first, to get back to my old work now, and see if there is really a new life; I want to see if I can help some for whom I could do nothing before. ‘I am with delightful people. Mr. Webb is just a living picture of Chaucer’s Good Parson and well known in the scientific world: his special field is astronomy. He showed us a wonderful gas-nebula on Saturday night. He quite believes in spiritual manifestations, and seems to think with Professor Barrett about the ether.