Her versatility was marvellous; and, "though she had
not in youth the severe training that makes for perfect accuracy,"
she had by nature the instinct which avoids the commonplace, and
which touches even hackneyed themes with light and fire. Her humour
was exuberant, unforced, untrammelled; it played freely round every
object which met her mental gaze--sometimes too freely when she was
dealing with things traditionally held sacred. But her flippancy
was of speech rather than of thought, for her fundamental view of
life was serious. "Life, in her view, brings much that is pure
and unsought joy, more, perhaps, that needs transforming effort,
little or nothing that cannot be made to contribute to an inward
and abiding happiness."
Some more detailed account of her literary work may be given later
on; at this point I must turn to the other side of her double life.
She was only twenty-two when she began her career of practical
benevolence among the poor girls of Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, and
Shadwell. She established in the country Homes for the girl-children
of an East End work-house, and maintained them till she died. For
twenty-two years she was treasurer of a Boys' Home.
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