ry of Elizabeth Gilbert are scanty,
but all that were possessed by her sisters and friends have been placed
at my disposal. My love for her, and our long friendship, have enabled
me, I hope, to interpret them aright.

FRANCES MARTIN.
_October 1887._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE
CHILDHOOD 1

CHAPTER II

IN THE DARK 14

CHAPTER III

LITTLE BLOSSOM 27

CHAPTER IV

WHAT THE PROPHETESS FORESAW 39

CHAPTER V

THE PALACE GARDEN 51

CHAPTER VI

A SENSE OF LOSS 70

CHAPTER VII

THE BLIND MANAGER 82

CHAPTER VIII

ROYAL BOUNTY 94

CHAPTER IX

REMOVING STUMBLING-BLOCKS 110

CHAPTER X

TRIALS AND TEMPTATIONS 129

CHAPTER XI

REFLECTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 142

CHAPTER XII

HER DIARY 150

CHAPTER XIII

THE FEAR OF GOD AND NO OTHER 158

CHAPTER XIV

EVERYDAY LIFE 175

CHAPTER XV

TIME OF TROUBLE 192

CHAPTER XVI

THE FIRST LOSS 212

CHAPTER XVII

HOW THE WORK WENT ON 221

CHAPTER XVIII

BLIND CHILDREN OF THE POOR 238

CHAPTER XIX

IN TIME OF NEED 249

CHAPTER XX

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW 259

CHAPTER XXI

LIFE IN THE SICK-ROOM 279

CHAPTER XXII

TWILIGHT 293

CHAPTER XXIII

THE END 304

CHAPTER I

CHILDHOOD

"Moving about in worlds not realised."--WORDSWORTH.

Elizabeth Margaretta Maria, born on the 7th of August 1826, was the
second daughter and third of the eleven children of Ashhurst Turner
Gilbert, Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford, afterwards Bishop of
Chichester, and of Mary Ann his wife, only surviving child of the Rev.
Robert Wintle, Vicar of Culham, near Abingdon.

The little girl, Bessie, as she was always called, was christened at St.
Mary's Church, which is close to the old-fashioned house in High Street
known as the Principal's Lodgings, in which Dr. Gilbert lived.

"A fine handsome child, with flashing black eyes," she is said to have
been; and then for three years we hear nothing more. There was a nest of
little children in the nursery, and in the spring of 1829 a fifth baby
w