wife. Bridgman's fears were realized when the couple returned from their honeymoon in August 1844. Howe had lost interest in Bridgman, though he had made provisions for her to have a home at the school for life. Bridgman never developed a close relationship with Julia Ward Howe who, according to her daughters, had a "physical distaste for the abnormal and defective" and a "natural shrinking from the blind and other defectives with whom she was often thrown" following her marriage to Howe. Mary Swift left the school in May, 1845 to get married, leaving Bridgman without any instruction for several months. Bridgman's next teacher, Sarah Wight, compensated for many of the losses Bridgman had suffered in recent years. A gentle, religious, outwardly timid young woman to whom Bridgman was immediately drawn, Wight taught Bridgman the traditional academic subjects — mathematics, history, geography — but she also set aside plenty of time for the two of them to engage in "finger" conversations, one of the activities Bridgman liked best. While Wight cared deeply for Bridgman, she also felt that, because of her "celebrity" status, the girl enjoyed privileges denied to other students. Bridgman had a private room, and she rarely mingled with the other students unless they paid her "particular attention". Wight also saw that Bridgman could be willful and irritable, behavior characteristics that required discipline. Bridgman could also be emotionally demanding of her young teacher, becoming peevish and short-tempered whenever Wight wanted some time alone. In 1845 at the age of sixteen, Bridgman developed anorexia, her weight falling from 113 pounds to 79 pounds. Howe rightly surmised that Bridgman was "reacting to the many abandonments and losses she had endured," and he proposed that she pay a visit to her family, with whom she had had little contact in recent years. Accompanied by Wight, Bridgman traveled to her family's New Hampshire farm in June 1846. She particularly enjoyed being reunited with her mother, sisters Mary and Collina, and brother Addison, who was able to communicate with Bridgman in sign language. She was also reunited with her old friend Asa Tenney, who visited her frequently during her two-week stay. Though Bridgman resumed eating, her often obstinate and temperamental behavior persisted; this troubled Wight, who understood that few people would endure such conduct in a grown woman. Wight left the Perkins School in November 1850, having spent five years as Bridgman's teacher