MRS. SOMRRVILLE. \J 



No matter whether the subject in hand seemed likely 

 to be immediately useful or not, if it came within her 

 reach, she perseveringly and industriously tried to 

 make it her own. It was this faculty of hers which 

 was the basis of her future greatness, and which en- 

 abled her, humanly speaking, to work out her career. 

 It has been the repeated experience of students 

 that it is never safe to neglect opportunities which 

 come in the way of gaining what seem to be the 

 most unusual pieces of knowledge. Once acquired, 

 patiently and thoroughly, such knowledge is certain 

 to prove useful sooner or later, whilst if the occasion 

 for taking hold of it is allowed to pass, it is equally 

 certain to be wanted at some time or other. Mary 

 Fairfax never made the mistake of letting treasures 

 of information slip away from her because she failed 

 to lay hold of them. 



Yet it would be a mistake to imagine that this 

 period of girlhood was entirely given up to hard study 

 and application. The contrary was the case. Soon 

 after leaving the Manse, Mary paid a visit to the house 

 of another uncle who lived at Edinburgh, and while 

 there she attended a dancing-class, and went into 

 society to some extent. But she did not breathe 

 freely in this sort of atmosphere, and probably was 

 very glad when, the winter being over, she returned to 

 the old home at Burntisland. Although she did not 

 know it, she was now approaching a crisis in her life, 

 for she was about to make acquaintance with the 

 B 



