“Mr. Elliott has invited me to the Merchant Taylors’ dinner, on Thursday next, in the Crystal Palace. To that I am going; more, however, from policy than from inclination, as it is very possible I shall have to sit up best part of the night to pack for my journey, and put away all other things until my return.” “Did it ever occur to you that packing, etc., or indeed, anything peculiarly womanly, is difficult, almost impossible to a woman who leaves home, day after day, at 8.30, and does not return, often—well, sometimes till 10.30 at night? That is my programme lately. But how much I talk of myself.... “I am obliged to break off hastily. I have been waiting at Myra Lodge for visitors who have not come! _Quel bonheur!_” “July 24, 1871. “This morning Mr. Lee and I met Dr. Storrar and Mr. Robins at the Mansion House. The Lord Mayor spoke most pleasantly to us. He will give us a note, which Mr. Lee proposes to have lithographed, and a copy of this will accompany every memorial. The Lord Mayor was particularly agreeable to me, and congratulated me warmly; he is very much interested indeed, and hopes to pay us a visit in working hours early next term. At all events, the Lady Mayoress will come—we must keep her up to it. The census shows a _steady decrease_ in residents in the City!” “July 27, 1871. “Pray read the attack on us in to-day’s _Times_. The fight has begun. We are not really in opposition. Any school in the City opened by Mr. Rogers will not prevent the necessity of a Camden Town district school. “I only trust the Lord Mayor will not _back out_!” Happily, the Lord Mayor stood firm, and wrote a strong letter of appeal to go out with the memorial to the City Companies. Miss Buss’ holiday was most profitably spent in Sweden and Denmark, where she gathered many educational facts and theories, and where she found the Swedish desk, which she was the first to introduce into English schools. The September campaign began with the Lord Mayor’s appeal, but progress was still very slow. Miss Geraldine Jewsbury’s warm sympathy was still a great comfort, but her letters show the difficulties encountered. Speaking of one friend, she says— “I must neither ask her to subscribe nor to ask her husband; in fact, I could not rouse her interest in _this_ quarter. She says she and her husband have embarked so much in the cause of education that they can do no more. But _it is all for boys_, of course. However, £5 is £5, and I think more of it than any other £5 I ever _earned_. I could never have believed in the difficulty of getting money for such a good purpose if I had not _tried_.