bject, she was most
reluctant to abandon it, and her gaze was so keenly fixed on the end in
view that it must be admitted she was found by some to be "ruthless" in
the way in which she pushed on one side any who seemed to her to be
delaying or obstructing the fulfilment of her project. There was,
however, never any selfish motive prompting her; the end was always a
noble one, for she had an unselfish, generous nature. An intimate
friend, well qualified to judge, herself at first prejudiced against
her, writes:

"In everything she did that was always to me her most outstanding
characteristic, her self-effacing and abounding generosity. Indeed, it
was so characteristic of her that it was often misunderstood and her
action was imputed to a desire for self-advertisement. A fellow-doctor
told me that when she was working in one of the Edinburgh laboratories
she heard men discussing something Dr. Inglis had undertaken, and,
evidently finding her action quite incomprehensible, they concluded it
was dictated by personal ambition. My friend turned on them in the most
emphatic way: 'You were never more mistaken. The thought of self or
self-interest never even entered Elsie Inglis's mind in anything she did
or said.'" Again, another writes: "One recalls her generous appreciation
of any good work done by other women, especially by younger women. Any
attempt to strike out in a new line, any attempt to fill a post not
previously occupied by a woman, received her unstinted admiration and
warm support."

It was her delight to show hospitality to her friends, many of whom,
especially women doctors and friends made in the Suffrage movement,
stayed with her at her house in Walker Street, Edinburgh. But her
hospitality did not end there. One doctor, whom we have already quoted,
on arrival on a visit, found that only the day before Dr. Inglis had
said good-bye to a party of guests, a woman with five children, a
patient badly in need of rest, who had the misfortune to have an unhappy
home, and was without any relatives to help her. Dr. Inglis's relations
with her poor patients have been already referred to. Not only did she
give them all she could in the way of professional attention and skill,
but her generosity to them was unbounded. "I had a patient," writes a
doctor, "very ill with pulmonary tuberculosis. She was to go to a
sanatorium, and her widowed mother was quite unable to provide the
rather ample outfit demanded. Dr. Inglis gave