The friendship between S. J.-B. and her fellow student had never
flagged. S. J.-B. had paid repeated visits to the Yorkshire home, where
husband and wife vied with each other in the warmth of their welcome,
and where both had proved most loyal advocates and upholders of the new
Cause. More than once when a petition was being got ready for Parliament
on the subject of the medical education of women, Mrs. Unwin had proved
herself a keen and successful canvasser for signatures in her
neighbourhood, throwing into the scale that weight of personal
popularity which is so important a factor in the achievement of any aim.
She had even paid a visit to the beehive at 15 Buccleuch Place, to be
made much of by the workers, and to be not a little impressed by the
sight of such divers and strenuous activities.
And now she was ill, and S. J.-B. was perfectly sure that, if anyone
could bring healing, it was “the little doctor.”
Fresh courage they brought indeed, a little fresh lease of life in which
the sufferer recovered strength and proved a renewed source of comfort
to husband and children before she was called hence out of their sight;
but healing in this world was not to be. _Dis aliter visum._
* * * * *
In other respects the holiday was a refreshing one. It included
attendance at a meeting of the British Association—great joy for Dr.
Sewall—and a stay at an old Perthshire farmhouse, which, to many other
attractions in S. J.-B.’s eyes, added the crowning one of a ghost,—a
ghost which was visible to the dogs, and abundantly audible to herself
and Miss Du Pre, though it failed subsequently to make any impression on
the representatives of the Society for Psychical Research.
From the farmhouse as a centre they made delightful excursions, the germ
of many subsequent driving-tours in Perthshire, and it was on this
occasion that the roadside inn at Fortingal was discovered, with its
restful surroundings, cosy interior, and omelettes that constituted a
positive object in life to the healthy holiday-maker!
After a farewell visit to Mrs. Unwin, Dr. Sewall sailed for Boston in
September, parting from S. J.-B. on the tender at Liverpool. Her “log”
was a lengthy one, full of wise observations and reflection, and every
word of it was written for S. J.-B....
“MY DEAR ONE,
... I have been thinking last night that if you and I could ever
practise together, we ought to do better than either alone, for you
have many qualities in which I am wanting. I think if we were
together, you would write a valuable book, and so give the world a
higher idea of women doctors. I know I shall never succeed in writing
a good book by myself.
It hardly seems worth while to make you read all my fancies, but it
seems to bring you nearer to me while I am writing, and the days are
so long and lonely here.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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