Amongst ordinary church-goers his decided utterances made him far from
popular, but the warm hearts of the Methodist people bade him hearty
welcome, and these he learned to love truly and well. They introduced
him to "many honourable women," several of whom became his friends and
correspondents; none of them, however, impressed him as did Mary
Bosanquet.

In writing to her brother nearly twenty-five years later he said of
this meeting: "It was soon after my ordination that I saw Miss Mary
Bosanquet. I had resolved not to marry, but the sweetness of her
temper and her devotedness to God made me think that if ever I broke
through my resolution it would be to cast my lot with one like her."

One may judge of the quiet but strong influence Fletcher exerted in
his neighbourhood by an incident which happened during that autumn. To
Tern Hall one night came a messenger from Salop, asking urgently for
"the tutor." The letter he delivered bore no name, but it begged Mr.
Fletcher to hasten at once to a certain inn, where he might find a
soul who wanted God. Without a question the tutor set out on his five-
mile walk, not knowing whether beggar or duke demanded his help. He
found the eldest son of a baronet, whom God's Spirit had rendered so
strangely wretched on account of sin that he could neither eat nor
sleep. Doctors had done their best to remove this remarkable malady,
but the one remedy lay in the touch of the hand of the Great
Physician, and, almost in despair, his soul cried, "Oh, that I knew
where I might find Him!"

The visit of that October night resulted in correspondence which was
blessed to Sir Richard Hill's conversion, although the young man
became in later years one of Fletcher's most active opponents in a