The meeting came off, and the only resolution that was put forward was one to recognise the necessity for a separate Asylum or place for European and Eurasian lepers, apart from that for the Natives. My husband, who moved it, contended that as Government had decided to take up the work, we could do no more than show our readiness to help to strengthen the hands of the Government in every possible way, and to express our opinion that such an institution was sadly needed. He then informed the audience of the private circular, and appealed to his hearers if it was fair or right for men to come down to this meeting with the deliberate intention of thwarting a good work, the object of which was solely and entirely to mitigate the sufferings of the most miserable of our fellow citizens. The opposition came forward with printed amendments to controvert arguments our side had not put forward, owing to the fact that such arguments were not required now that Government had announced its intention to take up the matter. The fatal itching of speechifying was so strong on these gentlemen, that they did not see the absurdity of combatting unspoken words. Notwithstanding their eloquence and the presence of their supporters, their amendment, when put to the vote, was lost. CHAPTER IX. HOPE--KATE REILLY. While anxiously waiting for the action of Government, we abandoned our idea of starting the proposed home, and determined to devote the money we had previously collected in providing small comforts for the inmates of the Government Leper Asylum, whom we continued to visit every Tuesday, and to minister to their small requirements. Other lepers, who were living in Calcutta, outside of the asylum, heard of our work in it, and made a practice of coming to our house for alms. We allowed two rupees weekly to an Eurasian who was a bad leper, and who tried to keep his wife and family on what he could manage to get by begging. He had been an inmate of the Government Asylum; but, as he found that he received there little or no medical treatment, he preferred to live outside and to procure, as far as he could afford, special treatment from a native doctor in the city. He told me he was getting much better and that he hoped soon to be cured and able again to work for his family. Hope, glorious hope, is ever present with even the most horribly afflicted of God’s creatures. I have seen the distorted features of the leper man or woman brighten as though a light had been suddenly illumined within them at the mention of the word “hope”; a light that even years of suffering and disappointment was unable to extinguish.