So he sent to England for many books written on the treatment of these children of affliction, and when they were come he pondered them closely and was thrilled by the marvellous works they described.

But when he came to practise the precepts they had given him, his spirits flagged, for the impediments were great.

Time after time he tried, and failed always, to touch by so much as one shaft of light the hidden soul of the child through its tenement of flesh and blood.

Neither the simplest thought nor the poorest element of an idea found any way to her mind, so dense were the walls of the prison that encompassed it.

"Yes" was a mystery that could not at first be revealed to her, and "No" was a problem beyond her power to apprehend.