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
amiable and estimable men!

"The answer was, we might play in the gardens if the residents of the
Square would give their consent, and the heroic Elsie, with, I think,
one other girl, actually went round to each house in the Square and
asked consent of the owner. In those days the inhabitants of Charlotte
Square were very select and exclusive indeed, and we all felt it was a
brave thing to do. Elsie gained her point, and the girls played at
certain hours in the Square till a regular playing-field was
arranged.... Elsie's companion or companions in this first adventure to
influence those in authority have been spoken of as 'her first
Unit.'"[9]

When she was eighteen she went for a year to Paris with six other girls,
in charge of Miss Gordon Brown. She came home again shortly before her
mother's death in January, 1885. Henceforth she was her father's
constant companion. They took long walks together, talked on every
subject, and enjoyed many humorous episodes together. On one point only
they disagreed--Home Rule for Ireland: she for it, he against.