The Convert

Yes, I will answer any general questions

, I

s Miss

at litt

he one I was te

tly in her corner of the cart, looking the least concerned person in Hyde Park. Almost dull the round rather pouting face with the vivid scarlet lips;

who, despite her childish look, was plainly no new recruit. Her self-possession demonstrated that as

mother know

d darn your

rra

e a di

n little

oo

begin.' You see the same sort of manifestation in the playhouse when the favourite comedian makes his entrance. He may have come on quite soberly only to say, 'Tea is ready,' but the gri

that platform ever saw. Her little off-hand manner seemed to say, 'Don't expect me t

acefully and at once as do it grudgingly and after more "scenes."' Whereupon loud booing testified to the audience's horror of anything approaching unruly behaviour. 'Oh, yes, you are scandalized at the trouble we make. But

sniggered a girl with dyed

k their heads. She just

e! There's a policeman

a little while ago how they had to take away someb

r, h

e, one of the policemen who was sent up to clear the gallery said he wished the members would come and do their own dir

ov'mint-get

fur the

et nothing even from their professed political friends, they've nothi

ha

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

indistinguishable denunciation

being a publ

ghing-

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

e! N

eyest of them all you'd think might have rubbed his eyes and said, "Everybody's laughing at them-why, there must

n the Prime

y for

e Minister. The Prime Minister, between you and me, is as good a Suffragist

use of any dependence she placed upon the value of dimples as an asset 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, an

eep quiet for a minute, I'll tell you a lit

Breakin' u

en ta

't understand them yet.

oments, 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 L

own'earte

e a little pit

yes and squaring their shoulders as much as to say, '

ad whispered several minutes before a big rai

r-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 o

miss! Caun't see,'

and organized opposition to whatever Government was in power, until

ed. There isn't a man in the world whose

thering. They roared with appreciatio

d tugged at her wide hat. 'They'll promise us heaven, and earth, and the moon, and the sta

e is! Ha! ha

you sit up

very contested ele

in or shine th

bit impressed any more, when a candidate tells us he's in favour of Woman's S

! o

w!

you say

son for the general belief that they were indifferent, if not oppos

ys will be there in future!)-when they find us there, they hold up their little white

ring in front

e they are, we say, "You don't care twopence about it. You are l

mbu

ugs to their fy

booing fil

put them there. But that was befo

ople shrieked with laughter. It was highly refreshing to

ery foolish who will ever be caugh

ld are

too ol

k about gettin' married,' s

w!

to these that she had to other interruptions. It began to be plain that, ready as she was to take 'a straight ball' from anybody in the crowd, she discouraged impertinence by dint of an invincible deafness. If you wanted to get a rise out of Ernestine you had to talk about her 'bloomin' pol

dozens and by scores are sent about to explain to them why they should vote this way or that. But as the chairman told you, any woman who does that kind of thing in the future is a very poor creature. She deserves no sympathy when her candidate forgets his pledge and sneers at Womanhood in the House. If we put ourselves under men's feet we must expect to be trodden

r! h

ot

ir. Like a paper balloon it was kept afloat by vigorous puffings of the human breath

I want to tell you men-here's a friend of yours-he's a new-comer, but he looks just your

ora

cause was then still in the stage of mild constitutional propaganda. Women were still occupied in being ladylike and trying to get justice by deserving it. Now wait a moment.' She stemmed another torrent. 'Be quiet, while I tell

and

t hear what else the irrepressible Ernestine had to say upon that absorbing topic). 'You men discovered years ago that you weren't going to get justice just by deserving it, or even by being men, so when you g

t laugh, no

r lives. It may have to come to that with us. But the Government may as well know that

et Hall to-night, and we hope you'll all come and bring your friends. We have very interesting debates, and we answer questions, politely!' she made her point to laughter. 'We don't leave any stone unturned. Because there are people who don't buy our literature, and who don't realize how interesting the Somerset Hall debates are, we go into the public plac

s heard, 'Them that's against yer are all

em time to appreciate

've been told by one of the other speakers how the men suffer by

eed no t

y blac

your Unions. You never would have done that if they'd had votes. You saw the important people ignored the

n have got to realize that if our battle against the common

become of

e seemed to have an answer ready, but the crowd fell s

d!)-'the flowers looked pretty dusty-but they weren't quite dead. I stood and looked at them! hundreds of worn women coming down steep stairs and pouring out into the street. What had they all been doing there in that-garden, I was going to say!-that big grimy building? They had been making cigars!-spending the best years of their lives, spending all their youth in that grim dirty street making cigars for men. Whose chivalry prevents that? Why were they coming out at that hour of the day? Because their poor little wages were going to be lowered, and with the courage of despair they were going on strike. No chivalry prevents men from getting women at the very lowest possible wage-(I want you to notice the low wage is the main consideration in all this)-men get these women, that t

ched fist against her chest and seemed to ad

ust tell you men something for your future guidance.' She leaned far out over the crowd and won a watchful silence. 'That talk about chivalry makes women sick.' In th

alking to us about chivalry if you paid our taxes for us,' she said; while the peopl

of them having to provide for their children; some of them having to feed sick husbands or old parents. But chivalry doesn't carry you men as far as that! No! No further than

When the speaker was warned that a policeman had his eye on her, the little old woman's instant solicitude showed that the dauntless Suffragist had both touched and frightened her. She craned forward with a fluttering anxiety till she could see for herself. Yes! A stern-looking policeman coming slow and majestic through the crowd. Was he going to hale the girl off to Holloway? No; he came to a standstill near some rowdy boys, and he stared straight before him-herculean, impassive, the very image of conscious authority. Whenever Ernestine said anything particularly dreadful, the old lady cran

women could open doors for th

u expect to

ully, with her wind-blown hat rakishl

e of the rowdiest boys, naturally surprised at this interjection, look

myrmidon of the law was vaunting

earer. 'Is that so? D

d at her. Not for this lady's ben

one in which he had betrayed where his sympathies, in spite of himself, really were. W

as sole exceptions, were dissolved again i

becoming inconveniently numerous. We've got friends e

am?' At which the crow

ard the sally, you would say,

you think all that we tell you is a joke-just as the governing class used to laugh at the idea of a Labour Party in conservative England. While those people were laughing, the Labour men were at work. They talked and wrote; they lectured, and printed, and distributed, and organized, and one fine day there was a General Election!

ot

n are aga

etters in t

come to hear you if

their menfolk. Some of them, I know, think the end and aim of woman is to please. I don't blame them; it's the penalty of belonging to the parasite class. But those women are a poor little handful. They write letters to prove that they "don't count," and they prove it.' She waved them away with one slim hand. 'That's one reason we don't bother

r lustily; they revelled in laughing praise, yieldin

had carried that dog-whip. Something in her face made them fall silent, for it was both good-humoured and expectant, even intent. 'I'm waiting,' she said, after a little pause. 'At every meeting we hold there's usually another question put at the same time as that first one about the quarrels that will come of husbands and wives holding different opinions. As though the quarrelsome ones had been waiting for women's suffrage before they fell out! When the man on my right asks, "Wouldn't they quarrel?" there's almost always another man on my left who says, "If women were enfranchised we wouldn't be an inch forrader, because the wife would vote as her husband told her to. The man's vote would simply be duplicated, and things would be exactly as

he matter up and incidentally to flatten out the man. One wondered that under such auspices 'Question Time' was as popular as it obviously was. There is no doubt a fearful joy in adventuring yourself in certain

ar him, again asked something in a hesitating way, stum

find himself bandying words in Hyde Park with a Suffragette. So when he stuck fast in the act of fashion

the rest. What this gentl

him seething with indignation, down there helpless in his crowded corner, while the

t question. L

women want the vote? Why,

r fellow-cowards. Thousands upon thousands of women f

en don't wan

s illegal. But who troubles to see that laws are fairly interpreted for the unrepresented? I know a factory where a notice went up yesterday to say that the women employed there will be required to work twelve hours a day for the next few weeks. Instead of starting at eight, they must begin at six, and work till seven. The hours in this particular case are illegal-as the employer will find out!' she threw in with a flash, and one saw by that illumination the avenue through which his enlightenment would come. 'But in many shops where women work, twelve hours a day is legal. Much of women's employment is absolutely unrestricted, except that they may not be worked on Sunday. And while all that is going on, comfortable gentlemen sit in armchairs and write alarmist articles about the falling birth-rate and the horrible amount of infant mortality. A Government calling itself Liberal goes pettifogging on about side issues, while wome

air. Hands gloved and ungloved, hands of many

bers raised above their usual range and common avocations, suddenly endowed with s

' Again hands, hands. Far too many to suit the promoters of the meeting. But

e air was full of the taun

t, and she can see when men don't play fair. Each one in that group held up two hands when the last vote was taken.' She made a great deal of t

nd laughter the tam-o

e of 'em!' was one of the

all to be

to the pub

g out, ''Andsome souvenir. Scented paper 'andkerchief! With

'rush' the speakers. The police hastened to the rescue. It looked as if t

aucous voice followed them, and not the voice alone. Through