nt, attending school in the
city of Brussels in Belgium. She then returned to her home and remained
there until, when twenty-one years old and resolved to give her life to
some useful and benevolent occupation, she decided to become a trained
nurse and went to London to study that calling.

She studied at the London Hospital--a place, we are told, where the
hardest and most difficult conditions prevailed, and where the nurses
were worked to the limit of their strength. She also held the position
of a nurse in two other hospitals--the Shoreditch Infirmary in Hoxton,
and the St. Pancras Infirmary; and she gained a reputation both for
hard work and efficiency, while her patients often spoke of her
gentleness and her kindness. Not content with forgetting a patient when
discharged from the hospital, Edith Cavell often followed him to his
home and continued there the lighter nursing that would assure his
convalescence. Her regular duties were severe enough but she used a
large part of her scanty leisure for such purposes as these.

In 1906 Edith Cavell left the English hospitals, where she had made a
reputation for herself, and went back to Brussels, where she took a
position as matron in a Medical and Surgical Home. Nursing in Brussels
had been conducted hitherto by Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy, and at
first they were inclined to look upon Miss Cavell as an untrained
outsider, but her tact, efficiency and skill soon won the hearts of
these good women, who afforded her every courtesy and entered into
cordial cooperation with her.

Her home succeeded so well that three years after its commencement,
Miss Cavell started also a training school for nurses. She was popular
everywhere in the Belgian capital, and although Protestant, she gained
the praise of the Roman Catholic priests for the generous and unselfish
work that she performed.

When the war broke out Miss Cavell was on a vacation with her mother.
Every year she returned twice to England to visit her family. Her
father had died by this time, but her mother was close to her heart and
she saw her as often as she could.

"I may be looked on as an old maid," she is reported as saying, "but
with my work and my mother I am a very happy one, and desire nothing
more as long as I have these two."

When war was declared Miss Cavell lost no time in hurrying back to
Brussels, believing that her duty called her there. She wrote a letter
commenting on the German army when it