We know how fervently the Mother “_hoped_” the same! The child seems to have spent the first weeks of May in her beloved home, and the following letter from Miss B. gives us a graphic sketch of her return to school: “MY DEAR MRS. BLAKE, Dearest Sophy has laid her letter before me, and such a burden of grief I can scarcely bear to send—but you will look at my view of the picture likewise. The tears shed in writing that were very nearly all we have had; for soon after parting from her Papa the heavy clouds passed away, and, when established in the fly I was glad to hear, ‘Well, I am not quite so sorry as I expected to be,’ and then ‘Mummy says the air of Ramsgate will almost make amends for the parting.’ We got home and found dinner ready, but dear Sophy could only take a little rhubarb.... At tea she seemed surprised at being able to express herself as ‘hungry,’ though the appetite was soon satisfied, and she is now sitting reading in the garden, which she says is ‘delicious’. Dear Mrs. Blake do not think I will tax her head with anything beyond beneficial employment. It will be my study to get rid of that _thin look_ which I could scarcely have attributed to so short a change (!). I ought to tell you that Sophy meant to say that she felt better when she got into Ramsgate than for some time, but grief swallowed up all other news.” A week or two later her Father asks her in a rash moment if she can tell him “Why it is wrong to oppose Papal Aggression?” adding, “If you can’t, I will tell you.” The question was a mere conundrum, but she takes it very seriously: “DEAR FATHER, I am _very very_ sorry to hear that dearest Mother is so unwell (or I should say _ill_). I send her a marker as _I_ have not many flowers that will press well.[7] Please tell her that she must not give it away to anyone. I am quite enchanted at Boy’s getting _two_ poetry prizes; it is charming. Well, about the question, ‘Why it is _wrong_ to oppose the Papal Aggression?’ I really don’t see how it _can_ be wrong and must think it quite right. I can’t see how it can be wrong for any zealous servant of God to oppose with _all_ his might that which dishonours God and his word, which (when the Bible says ‘none _can_ come unto the Father but by _Me_’) says that we _must_ come by the Virgin and the saints etc. People might say ‘We must not oppose it for it is God’s will’ they might also say that ‘temptation was put before the Jews and _that_ was God’s will’ but they were told to put the accursed thing far from them and destroy it utterly and _I_ think the Papal Aggression is put in _our_ way to try us and see if we _will_ oppose it unto death. But of course you know more about it than I, so please tell me why it is wrong to oppose it.” Footnote 7: She had her own little garden at Ramsgate. One can imagine that her Father was almost ashamed to confess that the question was only a joke.