"We see at last--it"s taken us a long time, but we see at last--women get nothing even from their professed political friends, they"ve nothing whatever to expect by waiting and being what"s called "ladylike.""
"Shame!"
"We don"t want to depreciate the work of preparation the older, the "ladylike," Suffrage women did, but we came at last to see that all that was possible to accomplish that way had been done. The Cause hadn"t moved an inch for years. It was even doing the other thing. Yes, it was going backward. Even the miserable little pettifogging share women had had in Urban and Borough Councils--even that they were deprived of. And they were tamely submitting! Women who had been splendid workers ten years ago, women with the best capacities for public service, had fallen into a kind of apathy. They were utterly disheartened. Many had given up the struggle. That was the state of affairs with regard to Woman"s Suffrage only a few short months ago. We looked at the Suffragists who had grown grey in pet.i.tioning Parliament and being const.i.tutional and "ladylike," and we said, "_That"s no good._""
Through roars of laughter and indistinguishable denunciation certain fragments rose clear--
"So you tried being a public nuisance!"
"A laughing-stock!"
"When we got to the place where we were a public laughing-stock we knew we were getting on." The audience screamed. "_We began to feel encouraged!_" A very hurricane swept the crowd. Perhaps it was chiefly at the gleam of eye and funny little wag of the head with the big floppity hat that made the people roar with delight. "Yes; when things got to that point even the worst old fogey in the Cabinet----"
"Name! Name!"
"No, we are merciful. We withhold the name!" She smiled significantly, while the crowd yelled. "Even the very fogeyest of them all you"d think might have rubbed his eyes and said, "Everybody"s laughing at them--why, there must be something serious at the bottom of this!" But no; the members of the present Government _never_ rub their eyes."
"If you mean the Prime Minister----"
"Hooray for the----"
Through the cheering you heard Ernestine saying, "No, I _didn"t_ mean the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister, between you and me, is as good a Suffragist as any of us. Only he----well, he likes his comfort, does the Prime Minister!"
When Ernestine looked like that the crowd roared with laughter. Yet it was impossible not to feel that when she herself smiled it was because she couldn"t help it, and not, singularly enough, because of any dependence she placed upon the value of dimples as an a.s.set of persuasion. What she seemed to be after was to stir these people up. It could not be denied that she knew how to do it, any more than it could be doubted that she was ignorant of how large a part in her success was played by a peculiarly amusing and provocative personality. Always she was the first to be grave again.
"Now if you noisy young men can manage to keep quiet for a minute, I"ll tell you a little about our tactics," she said obligingly.
"We know! Breakin" up meetings!"
"_Rotten_ tactics!"
"That only shows you don"t understand them yet. Now I"ll explain to you."
A little wind had sprung up and ruffled her hair. It blew open her long plain coat. It even threatened to carry away her foolish flapping hat.
She held it on at critical moments, and tilted her delicate little Greuze-like face at a bewitching angle, and all the while that she was looking so fetching, she was briskly trouncing by turns the Liberal party and the delighted crowd. The man of the long moustachios, who had been swept to the other side of the monument, returned to his old inquiry with mounting cheer--
"Are we down"earted? _Oh_, no!"
"Pore man! "Ave a little pity on us, miss!"
There were others who edged nearer, narrowing their eyes and squaring their shoulders as much as to say, "Now we"ll just trip her up at the first opportunity."
"That"s a very black cloud, miss," Gorringe had whispered several minutes before a big raindrop had fallen on the lady"s upturned face.
As Gorringe seemed to be the only one who had observed the overclouding of the sky, so she seemed to be the only one to think it mattered much.
But one by one, like some species of enormous black "four-o-clocks,"
umbrellas blossomed above the undergrowth at the foot of the monument.
The lady of the purple plumes had long vanished. A few others moved off, head turned over shoulder, as if doubtful of the policy of leaving while Ernestine was explaining things. The great majority turned up their coat collars and stood their ground. The maid hurriedly produced an umbrella and held it over the lady.
""Igher up, please, miss! Caun"t see," said a youth behind.
Nothing cloudy about Ernestine"s policy: Independence of all parties, and organized opposition to whatever Government was in power, until something was done to prove it that friend to women it pretended to be.
"We are tired of being lied to and cheated. There isn"t a man in the world whose promise at election time I would trust!"
It struck some common chord in the gathering. They roared with appreciation, partly to hear that baby saying it.
"No, not one!" she repeated stoutly, taking the raindrops in her face, while the risen wind tugged at her wide hat. "They"ll promise us heaven, and earth, and the moon, and the stars, just to get our help. Oh, we are old hands at it now, and we can see through the game!"
"Old "and _she_ is! Ha! ha! Old "and!"
"Do they let you sit up for supper?"
"We are going to every contested election from this on."
"Lord, yes! Rain or shine _they_ don"t mind!"
"They"ll find they"ll always have us to reckon with. And we aren"t _the least bit_ impressed any more, when a candidate tells us he"s in favour of Woman"s Suffrage. We say, "Oh, we"ve got four hundred and twenty of your kind already!""
"Oh! oh!"
"Haw! haw!"
"Oo did you say that to?"
By name she held up to scorn the candidates who had given every reason for the general belief that they were indifferent, if not opposed, to Woman"s Suffrage till the moment came for contesting a seat.
"Then when they find us there (we hear it keeps them awake at night, thinking we always _will_ be there in future!)--when they find us there, they hold up their little white flags. Yes. And they say, "Oh, but I"m in favour of Votes for Women!" We just smile."
The damp gathering in front of her hallooed.
"Yes. And when they protest what splendid friends of the Suffrage they are, we say, "You don"t care twopence about it. You are like the humbugs who are there in the House of Commons already.""
"Humbugs!"
"Calls "em "umbugs to their fyces! Haw! haw!"
Roars and booing filled the air.
"We know, for many of us helped to put them there. But that was before we knew any better. _Never again!_"
Once more that wise little wag of the head, while the people shrieked with laughter. It was highly refreshing to think those Government blokes couldn"t take in Ernestine.
"It"s only the very young or the very foolish who will ever be caught that way again," she a.s.sured them.
""Ow old are you?"
"Much too old to----"