“I have endeavoured to be perfectly candid: should the Council decide that my views are so unsound that I am unfit to occupy the position to which I have been appointed, I shall trust that they will allow me to make as public a statement of my opinions as they are obliged to make of my dismissal, for I shall feel that after this no person of moderate views will trust me, and my own conscience would not allow me to work with the extreme party in either High or Low Church.” The suspense whilst the Committee’s decision hung in the balance must have been great. Her diary indicates this:-- _July 12._--Mr. Bell’s letter about High Church from Cheltenham, and my answer. Some vanity. (Prayer) for resignation. _July 14._--Letter from Cheltenham. Neglect of prayer. Several times rude. The Committee, however, seem to have been satisfied with her letter to Mr. Bell, and another to Mr. Bellairs, in which she referred him to two friends who knew what her religious views were, sending him also two books, “which I have published without my name--not because I was ashamed of expressing what I thought right, but because one naturally shrinks from expressing without necessity one’s inner religious life”. They still had one more question, which Mr. Bell asked in his next letter:-- “Holding the opinions you have expressed, should you consider it a duty and feel it incumbent on you to inculcate them in your Divinity instruction to the pupils?” To this she replied:-- “I quite feel it to be a Christian duty, if it be possible, to live peaceably with all men, not giving heed to those things which minister questions rather than godly edifying, but I am sure you would feel I should be unworthy of your confidence could I through any fear of consequences resort to the least untruthfulness.” [Illustration: DOROTHEA BEALE IN 1859 p. 32] The difficulty was thus ended, and Dorothea Beale entered her kingdom. In spite of the many possibilities of giving offence, from the beginning she made the Scripture lessons the very centre of her teaching. To these she went herself not only with her carefully prepared work but with her heart and soul equally equipped. She demanded equal reverence in her pupils, and during times of building at the college the noise of the hammer was suspended when these lessons were being given.