“Mr. Latham has written a long (private) letter to me in which he objects (as I do in my heart) to both schools being put on the same site, and suggests cutting down our plans and _borrowing_.” Again sweets mingled with the bitter, when Miss Buss could report on December 18, 1876— “DEAREST ANNIE, “Will you return Mr. Owen Roberts’ letter? Is it not a delightful Christmas box? A whole hall!” This letter announced the intention of the Clothworkers’ Company to add the Great Hall to the new buildings contemplated by the Brewers’ Company. But still came further difficulties— “Jan. 25, 1877. “What do you think of my feelings at reading the following passage in the last letter from the Charity Commission? ‘We sanction the plans for the Camden School, on the distinct understanding that the buildings of the Upper School remain, for the present, in abeyance.’ “Poor Mr. Robins! He wants to go on with the Camden, but that seems to me to doom the Upper School. Is it not a constant worry? We must face the only possible outlet: Mr. Latham’s suggestion of ‘raising the fees without delay.’” The next letter is dated February 8, 1877, and shows Miss Buss in one of her (fortunately rare) depressed moods; but it also shows her usual self-sacrifice— “We have to-day received a note, saying that, unless we have new facts to lay before them, the Charity Commissioners _adhere to their decision_, though they will hear what we have to say on Thursday. This means that the Upper School must be left as it is, and the Camden be begun. “There seems no outlook. On the whole, matters look very gloomy. I have been struggling so much against a sort of sick despair that I am literally sore all over. The revulsion from hope to a state of hopelessness has produced on me the strange bodily soreness alluded to. “There seems only one chance, and that is, to give an annual sum of £800 or £1000 a year towards the debt out of my income from the school, and to make my friends insist on the plans being carried out. If, in addition, we raise the fees one guinea per annum, _i.e._ 7_s._ per term, we shall realize another £500, and the saving of rent, when buildings are completed, will add another £300. All this could be applied to paying the debt, so that the debt could soon be paid off, supposing the school to go on successfully. “The discipline of life is very hard, and one’s faith is not as strong as it ought to be. I do try to cast all my care on Him, who careth even for me; but it is very, very hard to cling closely. “I have to go to Cheltenham to-morrow. I shall not be home until _late_ on Saturday night.