Page:Sketches of some distinguished Indian women.djvu/76

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
64
SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

career must now lie before this brave, patient woman, and the compliments and congratulations and presents which were showered upon her, seemed only as the forerunners of many assured successes. But this was not to be. Mrs. Joshee' s health was already very delicate, and during the visits that she paid with her husband in the course of the summer, she caught several severe chills, which fastened on her lungs. It had been her intention to have passed some time in practical work in the hospitals, especially the New England Hospital for Women and Children, and the Blockley Hospital at New York, but a new direction was given to her plans, by the offer of an appointment as resident physician to the female ward of the new Albert Edward Hospital, established at Kohlapur. The salary proposed was Es. 300 a month, rising to Rs. 400 or Rs. 500, and she was to be allowed to practise privately in her spare time. Many considerations induced Mrs. Joshee to accept this offer. She longed to be at work, and to use her knowledge without delay for the benefit of her countrywomen ; her health she felt was failing, and she fancied that perhaps a return to her native land might restore it, and to add to these, there were family reasons which seemed to point to the advisability of a speedy return to India. Mr. Joshee had resigned his appointment in the Post Office Department, and it was necessary that some-