Lady Victoria Campbell

OF THE WILD TIKEE " 169
" been opened," and had " Nighean an Diuc "
(the Duke's daughter) gone in among the people
whose hearts she ever understood ; but she was
too clear-sighted not to see the folly, and too up-
right not to condemn the dishonest and disloyal
methods of the Land Leaguers.
It was not the moment to speak of her ambitions
and resolutions, so, as usual, she bided her time, and
set her hand to any work which was open to her.
She began to learn shorthand, and the daily round
is filled with the record of practising this method,
and learning Gaelic from any instructor she could
impress into her service at Inveraray ; the Rev. Mr.
McKichan was her teacher during this year, and Mrs.
Grant was also beside her.
The shorthand must have been dropped, as it
was not used in any of her voluminous notebooks.
Up to this date, and for some time later, her hand-
writing was singularly legible. No pen ever traversed
so much note-paper more rapidly, or was ever held
for a longer time.
She was peculiarly long-sighted, and only recog-
nised very slowly that long-sighted people, with the
passing years, need reading-glasses. She never had
efficient help in this direction, or was too impatient
to adjust what she had. A form of writer's cramp
completed the illegibility of her later writing, and her
letters were a puzzle to those even who received the
most of her correspondence.
She had a strong objection to being told her hand-
writing was a difficulty, and to the end she thought