nasty story, a "double entendre" fell flat when she was there. She was
the least priggish person in the world, but no one who knew her could
doubt for an instant her transparent goodness. I have read every word of
her diary; there is not in it the record of an ugly thought, or of one
action that would not bear the full light of day. About her books she
used to say that she had tried never to publish one word which her
father would not like her to have written.

She had a tremendous capacity for affection, and when she once loved
she loved most faithfully. Her devotion to her father and to her eldest
brother influenced her whole life, and it would have been impossible for
those she loved to make too heavy claims on her kindness.

[Page Heading: SOCIAL CHARM]

Miss Macnaughtan had great social charm. She was friendly and easy to
know, and she had a wonderful power of finding out the interesting side
of people and of seeing their good points. Her popularity was
extraordinary, although hers was too strong a personality to command
universal affection. Among her friends were people of the most varied
dispositions and circumstances. Distinction of birth, position, or
intellect appealed to her, and she was always glad to meet a celebrity,
but distinction was no passport to her favour unless it was accompanied
by character. To her poorer and humbler friends she was kindness itself,
and she was extraordinarily staunch in her friendships. Nothing would
make her "drop" a person with whom she had once been intimate.

In attempting to give a character-sketch of a person whose nature was as
complex as Miss Macnaughtan's, one admits defeat from the start. She had
so many interests, so many sides to her character, that it seems
impossible to present them all fairly. Her love of music, literature,
and art was coupled with an enthusiasm for sport, big-game shooting,
riding, travel, and adventure of every kind. She was an ambitious woman,
and a brilliantly clever one, and her clearness of perception and
wonderful intuition gave her a quick grasp of a subject or idea. She had
a thirst for knowledge which made learning easy, but hers was the brain
of the poet and philosopher, not of the mathematician. Accuracy of
thought or information was often lacking. Her imagination led the way,
and left her with a picture of a situation or a subject, but she was
very vague about facts and statistics. As a woman of business she was
shrewd, with all a