“If the Brewers will give the sum £40,000, it is calculated that the buildings will cost from £20 to £25 per head, and about 400 girls in each school; but there will be _sites_, law, and scholarships to be provided. “Mr. Roby thought the sum mentioned would not be too much for the two schools. This school is to be a _First Grade_, fixed pay of mistress £100 per annum, and a maximum cap. fee of £3. So my income might amount to £1300 per annum! The Camden mistress might get about £450 as a minimum, or £700 as a maximum. £200 endowment for rates, repairs, and £200 in each school for scholarships.” “Jan. 1, 1873. “My head aches at the thought of the worry of settling the claims to entry of the candidates waiting for admission. Your friends are somewhere about fiftieth. “Our scheme is not yet published. I am anxious to see it in the _Times_, so that the three months may soon pass.” Then came six months of waiting before Miss Buss writes, on July 31, 1873— “You will be glad to know that the Endowed Schools Amendment Act has passed the Commons. The Lords may turn it out. Perhaps they will. Won’t that be dreadful? I don’t know when the reading takes place.” But on August 9, she writes from Bruges to the Rev. S. Buss— “Of course you know that OUR Act—the Endowed Schools Commission—is really an Act now. It is mentioned in the Queen’s Speech. “This morning, a copy of the scheme AS PUBLISHED has been sent to me. So the Commissioners have lost no time. In three months—that is, on the 7th or 8th Nov.—the scheme will be prepared for presentation to the Privy Council and then to Parliament. So that, humanly speaking, the whole scheme will be accomplished in a year’s time. “It is curious how little elated one is, when fruition is so near!” The next letter to me comes in the same strain, dated August 26— “The Scheme is now advertised, and must wait three months, in order that opposition may be made. Then it goes to the Privy Council, and next year to Parliament. Altogether we may expect the twenty thousand (_cash_ value, _i.e._ about eighteen thousand pounds) some time next year. “I am most deeply grateful, but I am not elated. One’s elasticity gets sadly diminished as one grows older.” After this a whole year elapses, filled with steady work in the schools, and brightened with gleams of help, such as are recorded on June 4, 1874— “Within the last half-hour a note has come to me from Mr. Owen Roberts, clerk to the Clothworkers’ Company, to say they give us £105 per annum, during pleasure, for scholarships: 50 guineas to Girton, and two of 25 guineas for Merton. It is very pleasing.” The reason for this prolonged delay was shown at the next date, November 18, 1874—