proud possessor of a cake so large that it went the round of all the thirty-six probationers." This story also was told presently to Miss Nightingale, who enjoyed it hugely. She herself often wrote in a playful vein; as in this note to a pupil who was not taking due care of herself: "Ah, what a villain you are! _I knowed yer!_ If any one else were to do as you do in nursing yourself, you would discharge her from the face of the earth. And see the results! Then, I'll be bound you've eaten none of those victuals yourself." [152] See below, p. 348. III The _dossiers_ which Miss Nightingale preserved and, annotated (often picking out special points by black, blue, and red pencil respectively) were of use to her in the important work of selecting particular ladies for particular posts. The most notable appointment during these years was that of a Lady Superintendent to organize District Nursing in London. We have heard already that Miss Nightingale regarded this development as the proper sequel to the reform of workhouse nursing. That was in 1866, and now she reproached herself: "I had then resolved to give myself to promoting District Nursing, and now that District Nursing comes it is too late for me to help." This lament, however, was unnecessary. It was Miss Nightingale's published _Suggestions_[153] upon which the promoters of the movement acted. Foremost among them was Mr. Rathbone, who was moved to extend to London the experiment which he had carried out successfully in Liverpool.[154] He at once came to consult Miss Nightingale. It was her letter to the _Times_, too, reprinted as a pamphlet,[155] that made the "Metropolitan Nursing Association" well known to the public. In this letter, as in all her writings on the same subject, Miss Nightingale insisted that nothing second best would be good enough for nursing among the sick poor, that such nurses must be health missionaries, and that to obtain suitable women for the service there must be "a real home, within reach of their work, for the nurses to live in." The system thus inaugurated in London was, she said, "twenty years ago a paradox, but twenty years hence will be a commonplace." But the chief of the direct services which Miss Nightingale rendered to the movement was in persuading one of the ablest of her pupils--Miss Florence Lees (Mrs. Dacre Craven)--to accept the position of Superintendent-General. She filled the post with high efficiency for some years, and throughout her work was in constant consultation with Miss Nightingale. [153] Bibliography A, No. 75. [154] See above, p. 125. [155] Bibliography A, No. 80.