“Yours very sincerely,
“Gwen E. Lewis.”
The co-operation of Mrs. Moon in the work at Kimpese, to which Mrs. Lewis was looking forward, was not vouchsafed to her. In the order of Providence Mrs. Moon’s arrival was delayed until Mrs. Lewis’s work was almost done, and the shadow of death fast approaching.
In December Mrs. Lewis suffered from a serious attack of influenza, and during the spring of 1908 deputation work was sometimes interrupted, and fears of delayed return to the Congo occasioned, by the illness of Mr. Lewis. Happily these fears were dispelled, and in May Mrs. Lewis writes of packing, and the hope of starting from Antwerp on June 11th, with Miss Spencer, who is going out to marry Dr. Gamble.
So the last, and in some respects the happiest, of her furloughs came to its end. It began with deep sorrow, but it yielded many joys. She was happy in her deputation work, happy in her holidays, happy in her intermittent life at home, and supremely happy in her relations with the Church. During these months I saw more of her than ever before, and was privileged to hold much converse with her and her husband, of that trustful order which yields true spiritual refreshment. I may be permitted to relate a single incident of our intercourse. During one of my visits to their home in Hilldrop Crescent Mr. and Mrs. Lewis spoke of Grenfell, and of the Committee’s purpose to issue a biography. Drawn out by them, I freely expressed extemporaneous judgments as to the possibilities of the work and the manner in which it should be done. They listened with quiet interest, and in due course I went away, to return a few days later bringing with me, for their perusal, a letter from Mr. Wilson containing the Committee’s request that I would write Grenfell’s Life. Instead of sharing my amazement they broke into hearty laughter, confessed that they knew all about it, and that in our previous conversation they had been quizzing me. Their knowledge had come to them through attendance at Committee, and they felt in honour bound not to anticipate the official communication. Needless to say, after that Grenfell’s Life became a bread-and-butter topic between us, and I had the privilege of submitting certain early chapters for their criticism before they went away.
They had many missionary visitors, and among the most welcome and most frequently entertained were Mr. and Mrs. Lawson Forfeitt, whose disappointment at being forbidden to return to Congo, on the ground of Mr. Forfeitt’s broken health, elicited their warmest sympathy. They attended as many as possible of the services at Camden Road Church, and often took part in its meetings; made many new friends among those who had joined the congregation in their absence; and were delightedly received in many homes. As ever, Mrs. Lewis won her way to the children’s hearts. Two little girls of one family were specially drawn to her, and she asked them, when they said their prayers, to seek God’s blessing upon her husband, herself, and their work. The little ones gave their promise, and kept it. When they were informed of her death, they were much grieved and perplexed, and at night the younger of them prayed on this wise: “Dear God, we are very sorry that you have taken Mrs. Lewis to heaven, for we wanted her here. And please do not let Mr. Lewis be too sad.”
Her last farewell meeting at Camden Road will long be remembered by those who were present. A few friends in the company had loved her from girlhood, and many had loved her and her husband for long years. But during her last furlough the heart of the whole Church had gone out to them in notable degree. I mentioned this in the meeting, and in so doing expressed the common consciousness of the audience. It is a tranquil joy to those of us who are left, to realise that in all her long association with it, the Church was never dearer to Mrs. Lewis, and that she was never dearer to the Church, than when it said its last “goodbye.”
CHAPTER XVI
SETTLEMENT AT KIMPESE
A second time Mr. and Mrs. Lewis sailed from Antwerp amid a storm of music and enthusiasm. The storm was not raised for them, yet none the less they enjoyed the thrill of it. The voyage was propitious, and in the quiet resting days their thoughts turned fondly backward to the friends they had left behind, as well as eagerly forward to the new work they were about to undertake. In her first letters Mrs. Lewis gives expression to that feeling of deepened affection for the Church, to which I have referred, little thinking that those who had become more than ever dear to her would see her face no more.