e sank
peacefully to his rest, dying at 5 A.M. on Monday, 21st February 1870.

Bessie had left home without even a suspicion that she might be recalled
by a sudden summons, and now it seemed to her impossible that her
father's death should precede her own, and that a loss that she had not
dared even to think of, should have fallen upon her. She was stunned by
the blow, but she bore it with characteristic and Christian courage,
patience, and submission.

CHAPTER XIX

IN TIME OF NEED

"The grave is heaven's golden gate,
And rich and poor around it wait."--BLAKE.

It was deemed undesirable for Bessie to remain at Chichester during the
sad week that followed the death of her father. She went to her elder
sister, Mary, the beloved Mary of her youth, now the mother of a family
and head of a large household.

She wrote with her own hand a short note to one of the sisters at the
palace, which reassured them as to her condition.

MILTON HILL, _28th March 1870_.

MY DEAR SARAH--Thank you for all your letters. As you say, all the
preparations must be painful, but I am very thankful to hear you
and Nora are pretty well. You know without my telling you so, how
very much you are in my thoughts. I hope to come back Tuesday or
Wednesday, but Mary wants me to stay. Is it so, that we need not go
till after Easter? I should like to know, because of what I may
have to do about my own things. I think the appointment seems very
good. As for me I am rather better to-day, having slept better two
nights; but it is difficult to me as yet to do things, I have so
little energy or interest in anything. I will write again about my
coming. Mary is really pretty well I think, the last day or two
have been much pleasanter. Love to you all from your loving sister
BESSIE.

She returned to the palace but did not stay long, and spent the greater
part of the two months of preparation for leaving Chichester with her
sister, Mrs. Woods. She went, however, to her old home in April, and
left it finally with her brother and two unmarried sisters on the 21st
of April 1870.

Loving words greeted them on the day of their departure. "Wherever we
are," wrote one of the sisters, "we shall all know that we are thinking
of each other."

The house in Queen Anne Street was let at this time; two sisters went to
St. Leonards, but Bess