“After our interview with Mrs. Grey, will you return to lunch with me, and let us have a quiet afternoon together? A _quiet_ afternoon for me will be delightful. No consciousness of work neglected, and no responsibility, will make it really enjoyable to me. “If you will return here, I will ask Agnes to come also. “Yours always affectionately, “ARNIE.” “Ryde, New Year’s Day, 1872. “MY DEAR ANNIE, “A very happy New Year to you and yours! Will you accept the enclosed motto,[6] in loving remembrance of Arnie and New Year’s Day? It is a motto one needs to keep in constant remembrance. It is the hardest of all life’s lessons, that of resigning one’s self to an All-guiding and Almighty Hand above.... “I am already much better for leaving behind all responsibilities. It is very cold. On Friday, or Saturday, I expect to go to Sea Moor House, Bournemouth, Hants (Mrs. Hodgson’s), for a few days. My love to you and to Agnes. “Yours always affectionately, “ARNIE.” Footnote 6: This motto is, “O God, for Christ’s sake, do with me, in me, to me, by me, for me, as Thou wilt, this year!” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: THE LOWER SCHOOL. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER IV. TIMELY HELP. “Having reaped and garnered, bring the plough, And draw new furrows, ’neath the healthy morn, And plant the great Hereafter in the Now.” E. B. BROWNING. But, however it might be borne, the disappointment was bitter, more especially in the proof given of the absolute indifference of the public to the whole question. Prejudice might have been overcome, opposition might have been met, but against indifference so invincible no means seemed available. Mrs. Grey gave it up as hopeless. She frankly abandoned the old position, and opened out new ground in making her next appeal directly to the British commercial instinct. In starting the Girls’ Public Day School Company there was offered in addition to thorough education, a dividend of five per cent. The success of Miss Buss had proved that schools like hers were wanted by numbers sufficient to make them pay. There was not the slightest difficulty in any case in raising the £2000 in shares needed to start one of the Company’s schools in any locality desiring to have it.[7] Footnote 7: