And on the heels of this all the other congratulations pour in. “If I could I would ring the bells from Bow to Beersheba,” writes a friend and patient.
One almost feels that, if the bells had known the whole story, they would have rung of their own accord.
CHAPTER XXI
THE ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL
The friendly reader will feel, without doubt, that the year 1876-77 had done something to justify its passage, so far as the women were concerned, but the year 1876-77 was giving more than this. S. J.-B.’s main ideal, “Not me but us,” remained to be realized. The fundamental requisite, training in a large General Hospital, was no longer practically attainable in Great Britain. A handful of women had scaled the coveted height by means of steps cut, as it were, in ice that melted behind them. It remained to prepare a permanent way for those who were following on. And the year 1876-77 was destined to give this too.
Mrs. Anderson and others had been endeavouring to obtain admission for women students to some of the wards of the London Hospital, and for a time their efforts had seemed likely to prove successful. They ended in the failure to which all the patient workers were becoming so accustomed, but meanwhile “that which was for”—the women—“was gravitating towards them.”
Before the end of 1876 Mr. Stansfeld had written:
“Private.
Dear Miss Jex-Blake,
I will bear the London University in mind as soon as I see anybody....
I met Mrs. Garrett Anderson at dinner the other day; she did not seem to have much hope or plan about the School in any way.