on sunday afternoon, her wrath had burned itself out, but not its consequences. as she had no intention of making herself ill she was about to lie down and sleep, when her door was opened and she was told that she was free.
this was by no means welcome, for she wished to express herself in court, refuse to pay her fine, and go to gaol, that being the program of the suffragettes. but she was told to depart, and no explanation was given her. wondering if the duke had been telegraphed to, and brought swift influence to bear, she left the prison with some uneasiness; her old-fashioned relative was her one source of apprehension. if disapproval overcame his sense of justice and he cut down her income, she should have that much less to devote to the suffrage cause.
at the inn she found that mrs. lime, who had escaped arrest, was out, and ordered the maid to bring her bath. when she had finished, the maid returned with her tea, and stood by sympathetically.
“so you’ve been to prison?” she asked.
“i have,” said julia.
“that’s no place for you, mum. wot’s the perlice thinking of, giving you wot for like that?”
“do you belong to this town?”
“i do, mum.”
“then, let me tell you, it is a disgrace to a civilized country.”
“oh, i say!”
julia, who wanted to talk to somebody, gave an account of her adventure with the mob, and while omitting their language, let it be understood in her descriptions of their appearance and performance.
the woman nodded emphatically. “right you are. it’s them factory girls. they’re no good. trollops, all of ’em. w’y, d’you know, i worked in one of them factories for seven years, and i was the only girl in the lot that kep’ me virtue.” (she looked like a black-and-tan terrier and was not much larger.) “that i did, though!” and she nodded her head as if keeping time to a hymn.
julia, who had finished her tea, stood up and began to unpin her hair as a hint that she would like to be alone. but the woman set down the tray and exclaimed in a voice of rapture:?—
“oh, my eye, wot hair! oh, but i’ve always admired golden ’air, me own’s that black.”
“it’s very disreputable hair at present,” said julia, amiably. “it hasn’t been down since yesterday morning. naturally i couldn’t use the prison comb—if there was one!”
“oh—would you—would you let me brush it, now?” cried the woman, eagerly. “i’ve never ’ad me ’ands in ’air like that. i’d enjoy it, that i would.”
“why—if you like.” julia, who was tired, felt that it would not be unpleasant to have the services of a maid once more.
she sat down and the woman began to unbraid the long plaits.
“are you sure you have the time?” asked julia, perfunctorily.
“oh, yes. me ’usband’s ’ead waiter, and the master would give up the ’otel before ’im; and he—jim—-don’t dare say nothing to me, for fear i’d caterwaul. i can do that awful. oh, my eye, but this is ’air!”
she shook out the long strands and held one up to the light. “oh, gawd!” she cried, with mounting fervor. “no wonder them trollops wanted to mar you. they were jealous, that’s wot. they’d ’ave cut it off if the perlice ’adn’t come along, and pinned it on their own ’eads. and beauties they’d ’ave been!”
“do you suppose they were drunk?”
“?’alf and ’alf. it wasn’t time to be full up, but you oughter see them in the market-place at ten o’clock!”
“what makes them so brutal, then? i’ve never seen anything like them in england.”
“oh, i fawncy they’re about the worst england’s got. maybe it’s the cigarette factories does it, i cawn’t say. but they’re a rotten lot, and all me sisters was the same. i ’ad a blond sister, but her hair was more whitish, not gold like yours. she was pretty and more gentle-like, but she went to the bad fast enough. i swore i’d keep me virtue an’ i did. i never spoke to a man i wasn’t introduced to proper until the night i met jim in the merry-go-round—in the same seat, he was, and he made up to me—fell that in love he couldn’t see straight, and when he tried ’is nonsense, he got wot for and then he respected me from that day forth—i’ve read me penny dreadfuls, you see. well, we got married proper, and now we ’ave two good positions, and may own a public some day. it pays to be virtuous, it do. he isn’t the only sweetheart i ever ’ad, either,” she rambled on; and julia, seeing that nothing would quench her, resigned herself, for the woman’s touch was deft and light. “i ’ad a fine ’andsome sweetheart once—jim ain’t nothing to look at, and would drink if i didn’t caterwaul so—’andsome and upstanding he was, and all the girls was after him; and he was steady, too, had one job and kep’ it. he was in a big manchester draper’s shop. he used to come ’ere, and i used to visit me aunt—he was me cousin and ’is name was harry muggs. he was in love with me that desperate he’d swear he’d kill himself if i didn’t ’ave ’im. he knew i’d kep’ me virtue, and he thought me grand. once he was down ’ere after me ’ard, and we took a walk and come to a pond, and when i told ’im once more i wouldn’t ’ave ’im, and started to go ’ome, i was that tired saying no, he caught me round me waist and ’eld me over the pond and swore he’d drop me in if i didn’t ’ave ’im. i was that frightened i thought i’d die, and i screamed like i was stuck. but i wouldn’t give in, and then he threw me on the bank and run off and i’ve never seen ’im since.”
“why didn’t you marry him, if he was such a paragon?” asked julia, languidly.
“oh, i couldn’t, mum. he was a chance child. me aunt ’ad ’im by a butler where she lived. i ’adn’t kep’ me virtue for that—wot’s the matter?—”
julia was doubled up.
“oh—nothing—really—i think i must be a bit hysterical after my experience. would you mind telling me what the weather looks like? it was rather threatening when i came in.”
the woman went to the window and lifted the sash curtain. “it damps, mizzles like,” she said dubiously. “but i don’t fawncy it’ll rain ’ard. ’ere comes your friend. she was ready to drop last night. my, but she’s that stringy to look at.”
“would you mind telling her that i am here? she must be anxious.”
the woman departed unwillingly, her eyes fixed to the last on the hair julia was braiding. a moment later mrs. lime came in. she looked thinner and gaunter than ever, but her eyes burned with sombre enthusiasm.
“oh, you poor dear!” she exclaimed. “but you mustn’t mind, for the more unfair treatment we receive, the sooner will the right-thinking people of the country be roused, and the more recruits we shall get. that’s where the law shows its stupidity.”
“i didn’t mind in the least,” said julia, dryly. but she made no confidences. that violent upheaval and readjustment were sacred to herself.
“there’s another thing,” said mrs. lime. “a reporter was with the liberal candidate and the policemen at the time of your arrest. he’s also the correspondent of a london paper. he hunted me up at once to get some particulars about your family, etc.?—”
“oh!” exclaimed julia. “did you tell him?”
“why, of course. we cannot have too much publicity, and you will be a great help to us. the story will be in the london newspaper to-morrow morning as well as here. no doubt there will be a london reporter down to interview you?—”
“ah!” julia’s color had been steadily rising. “i can’t have that.”
“there’s only one thing to think of,” said mrs. lime, severely, “and that is the cause. people complain that we’re sensational, trying to attract public attention. why, of course we are. rather. how otherwise can we make ourselves known, much less felt, become a political issue, if we don’t take the obvious method? no newspaper would notice our existence if we didn’t make ourselves ‘news’ and force their hand. peaceful demonstrations, like shrinking personalities, belong to the dark ages of suffrage, when nothing was accomplished. now, if that reporter comes down from london, you must talk. jump at every chance to further the cause that’s given you. it isn’t so often we’re interviewed.”
“very well,” said julia, and half wished she had changed her name and dyed her skin and hair.
as mrs lime had anticipated, a reporter of one of the less conservative london newspapers arrived on the following morning. he was accompanied by the correspondent of a chain of american newspapers, commonly referred to as “yellow.” mrs. lime saw them first and gave a full account of the campaign. then julia descended, and having made up her mind to talk, she talked to some purpose. when she finished, there was no confusion in either of the young men’s minds as to her opinion of the government, the police, and the prison system of england. her description of the mob was so graphic that the american correspondent nodded with approval.
“say!” he exclaimed. “you ought to have six months of this experience, and then go over to the u. s. and lecture. you’d make money for your cause all right, all right. better think it over.”
“that’s not a bad idea,” said mrs. lime, with enthusiasm. “we will think it over.”
during the afternoon the girls once more started off on the heels of the candidate. but their work was almost done. the polling took place on the following thursday. almost as much to their own amazement as to that of every one else, the liberal candidate was defeated by a small majority. but if it was the first demonstration of the power of the militants in by-elections, it was by no means the last.
there was no question in the london press of ignoring this issue and its cause. with one accord it expressed astonishment, indignation, and righteous wrath, at the unpatriotic selfishness of a set of women that were a disgrace to their country and their sex.
