had
she been in his place, this early death might have been prevented. Her
school, intrusted to Mrs. Bishop's care, was a strong reason for her
speedy return to England. The cause which had called her from it being
gone, she was anxious to return to her post.

An incident highly characteristic of her is told of the journey home. She
had nursed a poor sick man on the way to Portugal; on the way back she
was instrumental in saving the lives of many men. The ship in which she
sailed met at mid-sea a French vessel so dismantled and storm-beaten that
it was in imminent risk of sinking, and its stock of provisions was
almost exhausted. Its officers hailed the English ship, begging its
captain to take them and their entire crew on board. The latter
hesitated. This was no trifling request. He had his own crew and
passengers to consider, and he feared to lay such a heavy tax on the
provisions provided for a certain number only. This was a case which
aroused Mary's tenderest sympathy. It was impossible for her to witness
it unmoved. She could not without a protest allow her fellow-creatures to
be so cruelly deserted. Like another Portia come to judgment, she
clinched the difficulty by representing to the captain that if he did not
yield to their entreaties she would expose his inhumanity upon her return
to England. Her arguments prevailed. The sufferers were saved, and the
intercessor in their behalf added one more to the long list of her good
deeds. Never has there been a woman, not even a Saint Rose of Lima or a
Saint Catherine of Siena, who could say as truly as Mary
Wollstonecraft,--

"... I sate among men
And I have loved these."

CHAPTER III.

LIFE AS GOVERNESS.

1786-1788.

There was little pleasure for Mary in her home-coming. The school, whose
difficulties had begun before her departure, had prospered still less
under Mrs. Bishop's care. Many of the pupils had been taken away. Eliza,
her quick temper and excitability aggravated at that time by her late
misfortunes, was not a fitting person to have the control of children.
She had thoughtlessly quarrelled with their most profitable boarder, the
mother of the three boys, who had in consequence given up her rooms. As
yet no one else had been found to occupy them. The rent of the house was
so high that these losses left the sisters without the means to pay it.
They were therefore in debt, and that deeply, for people with no
immediate, or even remot