This guild was one of two good works to which Isabel chiefly
devoted herself during her life at Trieste. The other was a branch of
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the care of
animals generally, a subject always very near her heart. "The
Apostleship of Prayer," the legacy of the Queen of Spain, so grew under
Isabel's hand that the members increased to fifteen thousand. They
elected her president, and she soon got the guild into thorough working
order, dividing the members into bands in various quarters of the city
of Trieste.
There is not much to relate concerning Isabel's life at Trieste for the
first few years. It was uneventful and fairly happy: it would have been
quite happy, were it not for the regret of Damascus, where they were then
hoping to return, and the desire for a wider sphere of action. Both she
and her husband managed to keep in touch with world in a wonderful way,
and did not let themselves drop out of sight or out of mind. One of the
reliefs to the monotony of their existence was that, whenever an English
ship came into port with a captain whom they knew, they would dine on
board and have the delight of seeing English people, and they generally
invited the captain and officers and the best passengers back again. The
Burtons had a good many visitors from England, most of them well-known
personages, who, when they stopped at Trieste, a favourite resting-
place for birds of passage, always made a point of calling upon them.
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