“My beginning of that last sentence wants an explanation, I see, so now you have it. Collapse comes on, in a mild form, after weeks of work, at the rate of fifteen hours per diem. I trust by the time we reach Gottenburg to have recovered.
“Mr. Robins asked me to the Swan-hopping dinner; but as it is on the 7th, I must not give up a week’s holiday for it. So Mr. Lee is going to advocate our cause privately as opportunity serves.
“Mr. Elliott has invited me to the Merchant Taylors’ dinner, on Thursday next, in the Crystal Palace. To that I am going; more, however, from policy than from inclination, as it is very possible I shall have to sit up best part of the night to pack for my journey, and put away all other things until my return.”
“Did it ever occur to you that packing, etc., or indeed, anything peculiarly womanly, is difficult, almost impossible to a woman who leaves home, day after day, at 8.30, and does not return, often—well, sometimes till 10.30 at night? That is my programme lately. But how much I talk of myself....
“I am obliged to break off hastily. I have been waiting at Myra Lodge for visitors who have not come! Quel bonheur!”
“July 24, 1871.
“This morning Mr. Lee and I met Dr. Storrar and Mr. Robins at the Mansion House. The Lord Mayor spoke most pleasantly to us. He will give us a note, which Mr. Lee proposes to have lithographed, and a copy of this will accompany every memorial. The Lord Mayor was particularly agreeable to me, and congratulated me warmly; he is very much interested indeed, and hopes to pay us a visit in working hours early next term. At all events, the Lady Mayoress will come—we must keep her up to it. The census shows a steady decrease in residents in the City!”
“July 27, 1871.
“Pray read the attack on us in to-day’s Times. The fight has begun. We are not really in opposition. Any school in the City opened by Mr. Rogers will not prevent the necessity of a Camden Town district school.
“I only trust the Lord Mayor will not back out!”