The grey-haired schoolmistress was a woman of ideas and ambitions beyond her apparent scope in life.
She had read her Carlyle and Ruskin, and in her calling she was an enthusiast.

But, in the words of the Elizabethan poet, she was perhaps 'unacquainted still with her own soul.' She imagined herself a Radical; she was in truth a tyrant.

She preached Ruskin and the simple life; no worldling ever believed more fiercely in the gospel of success.

But, let it be said promptly, it was success for others, rarely or never for herself; she despised the friend who could not breast and conquer circumstance; as for her own case, there were matters much more interesting to think of.

But she was the gadfly, the spur of all to whom she gave her affection.