ady to go anywhere in
crowded close, or remote tenement, if it was to see a mother who had
once been an in-patient there or a baby born within its walls. True, Dr.
Inglis saw The Hospice with romantic eyes, with that vision of future
perfection which is the seal of pure romance in motherhood. Because of
this she cheerfully accepted those cramped and inconvenient flats,
reached by the narrow common stair which vanishes past The Hospice door
in a corkscrew flight to regions under the roof. Inconvenience and
straitened quarters were as nothing, for was not her Nursing Home
exactly where she wished it, with the ebb and flow of the High Street at
its feet? Dr. Inglis always rejoiced greatly in the High Street, in the
charm of the precincts of St. Giles, that ineffable Heart of Midlothian,
serenely catholic, brooding upon the motley life that has surged for
centuries about its doors. Here, where she loved to be, The Hospice is
finding a new home, an adequate building, modern equipment, and endowed
beds, and it will stand a living memorial, communicating to all who pass
in and out of its doors, to women in need, to women strong to help, the
inspiration of Dr. Elsie Inglis's ideal of service."

CHAPTER VIII

THE SUFFRAGE CAMPAIGN

The question of Woman's Suffrage had always interested Dr. Inglis, for
the justice of the claim had from the first appealed to her. But it was
not until after 1900 that the Women's Movement took possession of her.
From that time onward, till the Scottish Women's Hospitals claimed her
in the war, the cause of Woman's Suffrage demanded and was granted a
place in her life beside that occupied by her profession. Indeed, the
very practice of her profession added fuel to the flame that the longing
for the Suffrage had kindled in her heart. A doctor sees much of the
intimate life of her patients, and as Dr. Inglis went from patient to
patient, conditions amongst both the poor and the rich--intolerable
conditions--would raise haunting thoughts that followed her about in her
work, and questions again and again start up to which only the Suffrage
could give the answer. The Suffrage flame with her, as with many other
women and men, was really one which religion tended; it was religious
conviction which mastered her and made her eager and dauntless in the
fight. She always worked from the constitutional point of view, and was
an admirer and follower of Mrs. Fawcett throughout the campaign.

"As