(_To a Matron who was having a dispute with her Committee._) ... My thoughts are your thoughts; they are full of your--may I not say our?--sad affair. And I was just sending you a note to ask what was doing when your sad little note came. Is not the thing of first importance to lay a statement of the whole case before your President? Nay, would it not be breaking faith with him if it were not done? This _is_ now being done. Is not the next thing for you to take no step till you know the results of this letter to him--the next action he will take? You will remember that I stated to him at your friend's suggestion and at yours, that you wished for, that you _invited, a full investigation to be made by him and that you wished to abide by his decision_. I thought this so important, in order that I might not appear to be asking for any personal favour but only for justice, that I underlined it. Will it not seem as if you were afraid to await his full understanding of the case (how far from the truth!) if you precipitately resigned before he had had time even to consider the statement? The Matron must show no fear, else it would indeed be sacrificing the fruit of eight years' most excellent work. Surely she should wait quietly--that is the true dignity--with her friends around her till the President's answer is given. The "persecuted for righteousness' sake" never run away. (_To a Matron after a visit to South Street._) DEAREST LITTLE SISTER AND EXTRAORDINARY LITTLE VILLAINESS--You absconded last night just as your dinner was going up, and it would not have taken you longer to eat your dinner here than your supper at hospital. I was a great goose not to make certain of this when you arrived. But I thought it was agreed. To punish you I send your dinner after you. (_To the same._) 10 SOUTH STREET, _April_ 21 [1879]. DEAREST, VERY DEAREST--Very precious to me is your note. I almost hope you will not come _to-morrow_: the weather is so cold here. St. Mary's expects you: and next do I. Be sure that the word "trouble" is not known where you are concerned. Make up your dear mind to a long holiday: that's what you have to do now. God bless you. We shall have time to talk. Thus day after day and year after year did such correspondence continue--now grave, now gay; filled alike with affection and with counsel. I have counted as many as a hundred letters received in a year from a single Superintendent. There were several years in which the total of Miss Nightingale's nursing correspondence has to be counted in thousands. As the years passed the demand on her affections, her brain-power, and her bodily strength became well-nigh overwhelming. IV