asm and pleasure kindled the interest of those who certainly had
a dry part of the work.

Bessie was not the only blind child in Oxford. Dr. Hampden, afterwards
Bishop of Hereford, had two blind daughters. The three blind children
used often to meet and walk together; but Bessie preferred the
companionship of the merry girls at home, in whose games she always
shared. She did not bowl a hoop, however, and in formal walks she was
the companion of the governess.

Children's parties in Oxford were a source of much pleasure; she danced
with girls, she was very fond of dancing, but seldom with boys. She
wanted a little guiding, and the boys were possibly too shy to undertake
this; certainly very few of them were disposed to try.

Bessie's birthday was, for the Gilbert children, the festival of the
year. This was owing partly to the fact that it fell in August, during
the long vacation, the time associated with out-door games in the grassy
quadrangle, whispered conferences near the mysterious and awe-inspiring
Cain and Abel, with dinners in the Hall and visits in the schoolroom
from friendly dons. There were three birthdays in August: a younger
sister and a brother were also born in that month; all three were
celebrated on the 7th, and Bessie was the "lady of the day." There was
always a water party to Nuneham in the house-boat or the barge. On
landing, the children would run to the top of a grassy slope and then
slide and roll down the slippery grass. Bessie joined in this game with
keen delight, untroubled by the silent watchfulness of a father, ever
alert to protect her from danger, and ever anxious that she should be
ignorant of special precautions on her behalf.

Dr. Kynaston, "High Master of St. Paul's," and former Philological
Lecturer of Christ Church, Oxford, was nearly always included in the
birthday party, and was very fond of Bessie. When she was a very little
child she was leaning far out of the window of the boat so as to put her
hands in the water, and her father was alarmed. "I am holding her tight
by the frock," said Dr. Kynaston. "Yes," replied the father, "but I must
have something more solid than that held by."

Of all these birthday parties, the most memorable to the blind child was
that on which she was ten years old. The day was fine, every one was
very good to her. Her special favourites, Dr. Kynaston and Mr. Bazely
(father of Mr. Henry Bazely, of whom a short biography has recently
appeared), were