[Footnote 1:  More about Ragged Life, p. 199.] [Footnote 2:  Among the Huts, p. 151.] [Footnote 3:  Lost in Egypt, preface.]

In 1870 Miss Whately was able to tell of the first of her scholars of whose conversion she could feel sure.  In 1878 she writes of two little boys, pupils in her school, who read the Bible at home to their old nurse, a slave woman, during the illness which terminated in her death.  So simply did she receive the truth, that she declined to see the Mollah or reader of the Koran, saying, “No, no, I want no one but Him whom the boys tell me about; the boys’ Saviour is my Saviour.” [1] In Peasant Life on the Nile Miss Whately gives several instances of Copts who through her efforts refused to turn Moslems, and of others who became Christians in deed and in truth.

[Footnote 1:  Letters from Egypt, pp. 117, 118.]

Instances of blessing on the work of the Mission might be multiplied.  Nevertheless the difficulty of bringing a Mohammedan to an open avowal of Christianity always remained extremely great.  Converts to Christianity always incurred the risk of secret poisoning.  Yet in the report for 1888, penned by Miss Whately only a few weeks before her death, she says, “The seed sown in past years is evidently taking root;” and the accounts for that year contain the significant entry, “Clothes for poor convert on his baptism, L2.”  She also gratefully acknowledged that the reading of the books of her lending-library, largely supplied by the Religious Tract Society, had reached more Mohammedans than any other Christian agency.

IX.

TWILIGHT.

Like the twilight in the land of her adoption, the twilight of Mary Whately’s life was very brief.  Her sun went down while it was yet day.  Her last years were among her busiest.  She would rise very early, often watching from her balcony the dawn break, and then would take a ride in the fresh morning air, or go out into her garden, for, as with her father, gardening was her delight.  After a simple breakfast she would be usually found in the dispensary by nine o’clock, reading and talking to the patients.  When they had all been cared for, she would teach her Scripture class in the Levantine school, and afterwards visit the other schools, or attend to some of her domestic duties.  After a short rest in the heat of the day, the remainder of the afternoon would be occupied with receiving or paying visits, and the short evening before retiring early to rest, when free from various forms of mission work, with painting or reading.  When burdened with the difficulties of the work, she would often exclaim, “Why tarry the wheels of His chariot?” and the coming of the Lord was ever the object of her lively anticipation.