ABSTRACT
That momentous autumn of 1872 could not go on for ever: Mrs Besant had to return to Sibsey, to her husband, to the parsonage, and to the parish. She returned a vastly changed woman. The congregation naturally concluded merely that she had been taken ill, and the crisis was deferred. It was again deferred that winter by the outbreak of an epidemic of typhoid fever in the village. Hundreds of parsons’ wives no doubt outwardly conformed to things they had no belief in, but to Annie Besant this would have been unworthy of her lofty principles, which already she was taking very seriously indeed. Mrs Besant was profoundly devoted to her mother; it was one of the most genuine emotions of her life. At first she was broken-hearted, but soon the presence of her little daughter, the need for hard work, and her continuing religious pre-occupations, brought consolation.
