' She saw that
he had a view of God which was different from hers. 'A most
interesting man,' she noted after the interview; 'but you could
never teach him sanitation.'
When old age actually came, something curious happened. Destiny,
having waited very patiently, played a queer trick on Miss
Nightingale. The benevolence and public spirit of that long life
had only been equalled by its acerbity. Her virtue had dwelt in
hardness, and she had poured forth her unstinted usefulness with
a bitter smile upon her lips. And now the sarcastic years brought
the proud woman her punishment. She was not to die as she had
lived. The sting was to be taken out of her; she was to be made
soft; she was to be reduced to compliance and complacency. The
change came gradually, but at last it was unmistakable. The
terrible commander who had driven Sidney Herbert to his death, to
whom Mr. Jowett had applied the words of Homer, amoton memaniia--
raging insatiably-- now accepted small compliments with
gratitude, and indulged in sentimental friendships with young
girls. The author of "Notes on Nursing"--that classical
compendium of the besetting sins of the sisterhood, drawn up with
the detailed acrimony, the vindictive relish, of a Swift--now
spent long hours in composing sympathetic Addresses to
Probationers, whom she petted and wept over in turn.
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