ustn't mix up Women's Freedom with Matrimonial Cases. Impossible! We
_dare_ not! A woman leaving her husband! Think of the weapon it gives
our enemies. If once other things complicate the Vote,--the Vote is
lost. After all our self-denial, after all our sacrifices.... You see!
Don't you _see_?...

"_Fight!_" she summarized after an eloquent interval.

"You mean," said Lady Harman,--"you think I ought to go back."

Miss Alimony paused to get her full effect. "_Yes_," she said in a
profound whisper and endorsed it, "Oh so much so!--yes."

"Now?"

"Instantly."

For an interval neither lady spoke. It was the visitor at last who broke
the tension.

"Do you think," she asked in a small voice and with the hesitation of
one whom no refusal can surprise; "you could give me a cup of tea?"

Miss Alimony rose with a sigh and a slow unfolding rustle. "I forgot,"
she said. "My little maid is out."

Lady Harman left alone sat for a time staring at the fire with her eyes
rather wide and her eyebrows raised as though she mutely confided to it
her infinite astonishment. This was the last thing she had expected. She
would have to go to some hotel. Can a woman stay alone at an hotel? Her
heart sank. Inflexible forces seemed to be pointing her back to
home--and Sir Isaac. He would be a very triumphant Sir Isaac, and she'd
not have much heart left in her.... "I _won't_ go back," she whispered
to herself. "Whatever happens I _won't_ go back...."

Then she became aware of the evening newspaper Miss Alimony had been
reading. The headline, "Suffrage Raid on Regent Street," caught her eye.
A queer little idea came into her head. It grew with tremendous
rapidity. She put out a hand and took up the paper and read.

She had plenty of time to read because her hostess not only got the tea
herself but went during that process to her bedroom and put on one of
those hats that have contributed so much to remove the stigma of
dowdiness from the suffrage cause, as an outward and visible sign that
she was presently ceasing to be at home....

Lady Harman found an odd fact in the report before her. "One of the most
difficult things to buy at the present time in the West End of London,"
it ran, "is a hammer...."

Then a little further: "The magistrate said it was impossible to make
discriminations in this affair. All the defendants must have a month's
imprisonment...."

When Miss Alimony returned Lady Harman put down the paper almost
guiltily.