position, and they say to me, "It's very odd being run by a woman; but
she is the only person who can do anything." In the firing-line she is
quite cool, and so are the other women. They seem to be interested, not
dismayed, by shots and shrapnel.

_16 October._--To-day I have been reading of the "splendid retreat" of
the Marines from Antwerp and their "unprecedented reception" at Deal.
Everyone appears to have been in a state of wild enthusiasm about them,
and it seems almost like Mafeking over again.

What struck me most about these men was the way in which they blew their
own trumpets in full retreat and while flying from the enemy. We
travelled all day in the train with them, and had long conversations
with them all. They were all saying, "We will bring you the Kaiser's
head, miss"; to which I replied, "Well, you had better turn round and go
the other way." Some people like this "English" spirit. I find the
conceit of it most trying. Belgium is in the hands of the enemy, and we
flee before him singing our own praises loudly as we do so. The Marines
lost their kit, spent one night in Antwerp, and went back to England,
where they had an amazing reception amid scenes of unprecedented
enthusiasm! The Government will give them a fresh kit, and the public
will cheer itself hoarse!

[Page Heading: MEN'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS WOMEN]

I could not help thinking, when I read the papers to-day, of our tired
little body of nurses and doctors and orderlies going back quietly and
unproclaimed to England to rest at Folkestone for three days and then to
come out here again. They had been for eighteen hours under heavy shell
fire without so much as a rifle to protect them, and with the immediate