On Monday, October 22, Miss Beale read prayers as usual, choosing a hymn by Miss Fermi from the collection of school hymns she herself had made:—
‘All the way our Father leadeth,
Whether dark or bright.’
After prayers she gave her last Scripture lesson—the usual Monday lesson to the assembled First Division. The subject was the Healing of the Body, in connection with thoughts suggested by St. Luke’s Day, and the Gospel for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity. It was a remarkable lesson. One who had not been present said that, when she entered the Hall after it was over, people were talking of Miss Beale’s wonderful Scripture lesson. In it she dwelt, as often before, on the duty of the care of health; and yet it was not to be the first consideration. She showed why sickness of the body is often for our profit. Then, having touched on wrong teachings about the body, as, for instance, those of Buddhism, she showed that the Incarnation brought unity of the whole being, at-one-ment of body, soul, and spirit. She concluded with the words: ‘The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.’
After the lesson Miss Beale read the weekly class marks, as usual on Mondays. In the course of the morning she discussed a paper she had written, for the American National Educational Association, with Miss Alice Andrews. Miss Andrews told her that a member of the staff had lost her mother, and during the day Miss Beale wrote a note of sympathy. In a second interview that morning Miss Beale told Miss Andrews that the doctor had told her she must lie up for some weeks. ‘But I am not going away, I shall be amongst you all.’
Miss Sturge noticed that Miss Beale lingered in the Hall when school was over, as if unwilling to leave. She seemed pathetically anxious to leave nothing undone. Finally, after discussing several small matters, she said, ‘Good-bye; I hope to come back in three weeks, and you can just say I am resting. I will not tell you where, and then if you are asked you will not know.’ Then she added wistfully, ‘Perhaps I may never come back.’ On that afternoon, accompanied by Miss Rowand, she went to the nursing home.
The operation took place next day. Miss Beale found it hard just at first to reconcile herself to the position of patient, and the absolute obedience and dependence it involved. But in the charge of Miss Lane and her staff she was surrounded with loving care, to which she was most responsive, once pointing out to a friend the nurse who was standing by as ‘the one who spoils me so.’ Miss Gore and Miss Rowand saw her from time to time. The mid-term holiday was approaching, and she spoke of arrangements for it, and begged Miss Rowand to send her party for their usual expedition in charge of the house-governesses, and to remain at home herself.
Up to the morning of Sunday the 28th all seemed to go well. Very early that day she seemed ill, and wandering in mind, getting up and saying she must go to early service. In the afternoon she was quiet and calm, and saw one or two friends. To Miss Gore she spoke of the coming All Saints’ Day, saying how much the Communion of Saints meant to her.
On this day also, by the hand of Miss Lane—but she signed it herself—she wrote a last letter to Miss Amy Giles[100]:—