‘Perhaps this sort of class will be better for you, and I think you are suited for it, because you are sympathetic, and will encourage those who feel themselves backward or not clever, to use the powers they have, to do what they can. May our Lord bless and comfort and guide you, my dear child.’ The College was not an easy place to leave. Miss Beale was proud of the number of head-mistresses she sent out, but she grudged parting with her best teachers. And there were many who, like Miss Belcher,[76] sacrificed their own interests to that of the College. The following is a characteristic letter on the subject:— ‘_February 1894._ ‘Miss Wolseley Lewis, who has been here nineteen years as pupil and teacher, who is B.A., gold medallist, all round, a charming character, good churchwoman, excellent influence, has come to ask me for a testimonial! I wish I could write she is horrid! ‘I am losing Miss Edmonds, another gold medallist, and so good all round, because she wants to be M.D. and missionary. I think it is cruel to take people at this time of year. Is there any chance of Canon Holland waiting?’ But when Miss Wolseley Lewis went to Graham Street, she wrote to her:— ‘You have been much in my thoughts this last Sunday. The sorrow of this year[77] seems to have drawn us nearer, and it is hard to part with you; but I feel you have been called to this work, and I am in the depths of my heart glad. May you in some degree realise the life of the ideal woman, through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.’ ‘I have known her,’ wrote a head-mistress after the death of Miss Beale, ‘for thirty-six years now, and she has been the truest and most valued of friends to me. How we who are head-mistresses of smaller schools will miss her advice and help it is difficult to express.’ And Miss Beale could be most generous in parting with her best even in obedience to the claims of ordinary life, claims which she did not find it easy always to recognise. The following letter gives an example of this:— ‘There can be only one answer under the circumstances,—you feel you could not return, and I should feel as you do in your place. It is a great blow to me, for we have learned to feel such trust in one another, and one cannot trust these young teachers to every one.... I shall miss from my staff one whom I had learned to regard as a dear and faithful friend and fellow-worker.’ Many more extracts might be made from Miss Beale’s letters to show her care for teachers and her supreme interest in all that concerned their welfare, but in many cases they suffer by separation from their context. Therefore, from the large mass of correspondence left, a certain number of letters dealing with various subjects have been selected to form a chapter by themselves. CHAPTER XIII PARERGA