[10] _Catherine of Siena_, by C. M. Antony.




CHAPTER V

THE SOLVED PROBLEMS


"_It is the solution worked out in the life, not merely in words,
that brings home to other lives the fact that the problem is not
insoluble_."


It may be truly said that special types of problems come before the
unmarried woman for solution--problems as to her connection with society
and with the race, which confront her as they do not others. Though few
signs of a mental struggle were visible on the surface, there is no
doubt that Elsie Inglis met these problems and settled them in the
silence of her heart. It is a fact of much interest in connection with
the subject of this memoir that amongst the papers found after she had
died is the MS. of a novel written by herself, entitled _The Story of a
Modern Woman_, and one turns the pages with eager interest to see if
they furnish a key to the path along which she travelled in solving her
problems. The expectation is realized, and in reading the pages of the
novel we find the secret of the assurance and happy courage which
characterized her. Whether she intended it or not, many parts of the
book are without doubt autobiographical. In this chapter we propose to