riots may be the
consequence of a mission; wars may be the consequence of a mission: we
go on with our work, irrespective of every human consideration which
moves the world outside us. We are above reason; we are beyond ridicule;
we see with nobody's eyes, we hear with nobody's ears, we feel with
nobody's hearts, but our own. Glorious, glorious privilege! And how is
it earned? Ah, my friends, you may spare yourselves the useless inquiry!
We are the only people who can earn it--for we are the only people who
are always right.

In the case of my misguided aunt, the form which pious perseverance was
next to take revealed itself to me plainly enough.

Preparation by clerical friends had failed, owing to Lady Verinder's
own reluctance. Preparation by books had failed, owing to the doctor's
infidel obstinacy. So be it! What was the next thing to try? The next
thing to try was--Preparation by Little Notes. In other words, the books
themselves having been sent back, select extracts from the books, copied
by different hands, and all addressed as letters to my aunt, were, some
to be sent by post, and some to be distributed about the house on the
plan I had adopted on the previous day. As letters they would excite no
suspicion; as letters they would be opened--and, once opened, might be
read. Some of them I wrote myself. "Dear aunt, may I ask your attention
to a few lines?" &c. "Dear aunt, I was reading last night, and I chanced
on the following passage," &c. Other letters were written for me by my
valued fellow-workers, the sisterhood at the Mothers'-Small-Clothes.
"Dear madam, pardon the interest taken in you by a true, though humble,
friend." "Dear madam, may a serious person surprise you by saying a
few cheering words?" Using these and other similar forms of courteous
appeal, we reintroduced all my precious passages under a form which not
even the doctor's watchful materialism could suspect. Before the shades
of evening had closed around us, I had a dozen awakening letters for
my aunt, instead of a dozen awakening books. Six I made immediate
arrangements for sending through the post, and six I kept in my pocket
for personal distribution in the house the next day.

Soon after two o'clock I was again on the field of pious conflict,
addressing more kind inquiries to Samuel at Lady Verinder's door.

My aunt had had a bad night. She was again in the room in which I had
witnessed her Will, resting on the sofa, and trying to get