as had her share of inspiring teachers, and among these
Mrs. Irvine was undoubtedly one of the most brilliant.

The new president assumed her office reluctantly, and with the
understanding that she should be allowed to retire after a brief
term of years, when "the exigencies which suggested her appointment
had ceased to exist." She knew the college, and she knew herself.
With certain aspects of the Wellesley life she could never be
entirely in accord. She was a Hicksite Quaker. The Wellesley
of the decade 1890-1900 had moved a long way from the evangelical
revivalism which had been Mr. Durant's idea of religion, but it was
not until 1912 that the Quaker students first began to hold their
weekly meetings in the Observatory. About this time also, through
the kind offices of the Wellesley College Christian Association,
a list of the Roman Catholic students then in college was given
to the Roman Catholic parish priest. That the trustees in 1895
were willing to trust the leadership of the college to a woman
whose religious convictions differed so widely from those of the
founder indicates that even then Wellesley was beginning to outgrow
her religious provincialism, and to recognize that a wise tolerance
is not incompatible with steadfast Christian witness.

The religious services which Mrs. Irvine, in her official capacity,
conducted for the college were impressive by their simplicity and
distinction. An alumna of 1897 writes: "That commanding figure
behind the reading-desk of the old chapel in College Hall made
every one, in those days, rejoice when she was to lead the morning
service." But the trustees, anxious to set her free for the academic
side of her work, which now demanded the whole of her time,
appointed a dean to relieve her of such other duties as she desired
to delegate to another. This action was made possible by amendment
of the statutes, adopted November 1, 1894, and in 1895, Miss
Margaret E. Stratton, professor of the Department of Rhetoric, as
it was then called, was appointed the first dean of the college.

The trustees did not define the precise nature of the relation
between the president and the dean, but left these officers to
make such division of work as should seem to them best, and we
read in Mrs. Irvine's report for 1895 that, "For the present the
Dean remains in charge of all that relates to the public devotional
exercises of the college, and is chairman of the committee in
charge o