No, no, my dear Doctor, it is not at all anything of this that is in your manner. In some way you have got it into your head and heart that you must play the first fiddle, or still better, be the conductor and show your importance in every way, small and big. You want the incense of having everybody look up to you as the most important person in the concern; you like to patronize, and so on. And I, to tell the truth, am very willing that you should have all this pleasure because I do not care at all for these things. To me, the answer to one of the great questions of the time is to assist women into their right position whether or not they know me or my name (which, luckily, is so hard that they won’t even take the trouble to learn it). Now, this will be the last time that I shall write on this subject. There is no use in trying to make artificially a harmony which does not any more come spontaneously. I am very willing, yes, even too willing, to allow myself to be overruled, because I do not care at all for the particular minutæ. You know that I carried on the Hospital quite differently from Dr. ---- or Dr. ----, yes, even from what you did, but I never tried, nor wanted to try, to interfere, because it is far better that each individual should do her work in her individual way. Otherwise, it must fail to be done well. Imitations are always inferior to the genuine article. But agreeing to a thing is not always liking it. As for my having wounded your feelings, this is possible--but I daresay it was only in hospital matters when forced out by your hostile manner. I hope I never was rude in my social relations, and if I have been let me assure you that if you will tell me when and where I was so, I will certainly beg your pardon. CHAPTER XXXIX _Dr. Zakrzewska’s private life--Her home--Her friends--Her keeping in touch with the Hospital doctors, students and internes--Her “boys”--Her ethics--Her reading--Men physicians who served as consultants at the New England Hospital._ Concurrently with the public manifestations of Dr. Zakrzewska’s life, as recorded in the preceding pages, proceeded her more intimate life of home, family and friends. Allusions to these happy possessions have been made from time to time, but a particular word should be given to one feature which she brought with her from the old world to the new--a feature which enriches life over there, and which would add so much to our American life could we adopt it as generally and as simply. Reference is here made to the custom of European people of all grades of circumstance in incorporating the outdoors into the daily life of the household, especially for the hour or moment of social relaxation.