th me still."

There was a constant change of scene during these years in
India--Allahabad, Naini Tal, Calcutta, Simla, and Lucknow. After her
father retired, two years in Australia visiting older brothers who had
settled there, and then in 1878 home to the land of her fathers.

On the voyage home, when Elsie was about fourteen, her mother writes of
her:

"Elsie has found occupation for herself in helping to nurse sick
children and look after turbulent boys who trouble everybody on board,
and a baby of seven months old is an especial favourite with her."

But through the changing scenes there was always growing and deepening
the beautiful comradeship between father and daughter. The family
settled in Edinburgh, and Elsie went to school to the Charlotte Square
Institution, perhaps in those days the best school for girls in
Edinburgh. In the history class taught by Mr. Hossack she was nearly
always at the top.

Of her school life in Edinburgh a companion writes:

"I remember quite distinctly when the girls of 23, Charlotte Square were
told that two girls from Tasmania were coming to the school, and a
certain feeling of surprise that the said girls were just like ordinary
mortals, though the big, earnest brows and the hair quaintly parted in
the middle and done up in plaits fastened up at the back of the head
were certainly not ordinary.

"A friend has the story of a question going round the class; she thinks
Clive or Warren Hastings was the subject of the lesson, and the question
was what one would do if a calumny were spread about one. 'Deny it,' one
girl answered. 'Fight it,' another. Still the teacher went on asking.
'Live it down,' said Elsie. 'Right, Miss Inglis.' My friend writes: 'The
question I cannot remember; it was the bright, confident smile with the
answer, and Mr. Hossack's delighted wave to the top of the class that
abides in my memory.'

"I always think a very characteristic story of Elsie is her asking that
the school might have permission to play in Charlotte Square Gardens. In
those days no one thought of providing fresh-air exercise for girls
except by walks, and tennis was just coming in. Elsie had the courage
(to us schoolgirls it seemed extraordinary courage) to confront the
three Directors of the school, and ask if we might be allowed to play in
the gardens of the Square. The three Directors together were to us the
most formidable and awe-inspiring body, though separately they were
amiabl