solidly accomplished would not very long remain a governess, but in fact her career was chosen from the moment she became interested in the development of the mind and character of the child intrusted to her care.  It is difficult to see how our modern life would go on as well as it does if there were not in our homes a good many such faithful souls.  It sometimes seems, in this shifting world, that about the best any of us can do is to prepare some one else for doing something well.

Miss McDonald had a pretty comprehensive knowledge of English literature and history, and, better perhaps than mere knowledge, a discriminating and cultivated taste.  If her religious education had twisted her view of the fine arts, she had nevertheless a natural sympathy for the beautiful, and she would not have been a Scotchwoman if she had not had a love for the romances of her native land and at heart a “ballad” sentiment for the cavaliers.  If Evelyn had been educated by her in Edinburgh, she might have been in sentiment a young Jacobite.  She had through translations a sufficient knowledge of the classics to give her the necessary literary background, and her study of Latin had led her into the more useful acquisition of French.

If she had been free to indulge her own taste, she would have gone far in natural history, as was evident from her mastery of botany and her interest in birds.

She inspired so much confidence by her good sense, clear-headedness, and discretion, that almost from the first Evelyn was confided to her sole care, with only the direction that the baby was never for an instant, night or day, to be left out of the sight of a trusty attendant.  The nurse was absolutely under her orders, she selected the two maids, and no person except the parents and the governess could admit visitors to the nursery.  This perfect organization was maintained for many years, and though it came to be relaxed in details, it was literally true that the heiress was never alone, and never out of the sight of some trusted person responsible for her safety.  But whatever the changes or relaxation, in holidays, amusements, travel, or education, the person who formed her mind was the one who had taught her to obey, to put words together into language, and to speak the truth, from infancy.

It is not necessary to consider Ann McDonald as a paragon.  She was simply an intelligent, disciplined woman, with a strong sense of duty.  If she had married and gone about the ordinary duties of life at the age of twenty-four, she would probably have been in no marked way distinguished among women.  Her own development was largely due to the responsibility that was put upon her in the training of another person.  In this sense it was true that she had learned as much as she had imparted.  And in nothing was this more evident than in the range of her literary taste and judgment.  Whatever risks, whatever latitude she might have been disposed to take with regard to her own mind, she would not take as to the mind of another, and as a consequence her own standards rose to meet the situation.  That is to say, in a conscientious selection of only the best for Evelyn, she became more fastidious as to the food for her own mind.  Or, to put it in still another way, in regard to character and culture generally, the growth of Miss McDonald could be measured by that of Evelyn.