Bessie warmly approved of marriage for the blind, and was sometimes charged with promoting it injudiciously. In this case she would have been very glad if C. could have found a healthy, capable wife, who would have made him happy. She used to say that blindness was the strongest possible bond of sympathy between husband and wife; and as she did not for herself witness the untidiness and discomfort in the homes where man and wife are both blind, and the almost unavoidable neglect of young children, she could not share the objection of many members of the Committee to marriage between the workpeople. In 1879 her widowed sister, the Hon. Mrs. Elliot, was married to Mr. Childers. Mr. Childers had not previously known Bessie personally, but he saw her several times afterwards, and was greatly impressed by her marvellous patience and resignation. In one of her early interviews with him she had asked for information as to the Blind and Deaf Mute Education Bill, which Mr. Wheelhouse, member for Leeds, Mr. Mellor, and others, had introduced into the House of Commons, but had been unsuccessful in passing. She wished to see any papers Mr. Wheelhouse could send, and was much interested in his efforts and in the correspondence which followed her request. Many letters received at this time have been preserved, and they show the influence which, from her bed of pain, she exercised on all around her. The following is from her old friend, Mr. Coxe, librarian of the Bodleian. It is his last letter to her; he died in the following July: NORTHGATE, OXFORD, _S. Stephen's Day, 1880_.