Lady Victoria Campbell

182 "AND THEY WAKEN'D THE MEN
any incursions from the young. She loved that they
should seek that sympathy which was so keen and
vivacious, and she enjoyed the comments, criticisms,
and even the instruction which the young people
were so ready to bestow on her.
" So glad you are to have Lesley," she writes to
Lady Mary. " Do let me know about her. One
can't have a creature for six months, and not feel
like a bit of her." That was an exact description
of her relation to the young, whether of her own kin-
dred or the many young girls she mothered.
She made her mistakes with them. She trusted
too little in the Providence which watches over
" fules and bairns," and she worried herself and her
adopted charges to a degree which was wasteful
of time and energy. She never could understand
that children would rather suffer any physical pain
than be subjected to the mental torture of taking
care of their health : " changing their feet," and being
duly wrapped up. She was a curious mixture of
being one with them in much, and yet straining the
authority which parents are the first to know can
only be best used when least is said.
But, when the worst is said of her management,
there remains the fact that children loved her, because
her heart was in their keeping. She saw, with a
quick eye, the sorrows which are so living and
absorbing in the days of childhood. She wished for
them all that had been denied to herself ; and if
she knew the home life was happy, in that centre
she came oftenest to rest.