y. She was no longer
living with her own family, for Mrs. Jervis was hostile to Women's
Franchise. She had rooms off the Strand, not far from the headquarters
of the Union.

Frances looked a little careworn. She had been sent for to Grannie's
house to see what could be done with Aunt Emmeline, and had found, as
usual, that nothing could be done with her. In the last three years the
second Miss Fleming had become less and less enthusiastic, and more and
more emphatic, till she ceased from enthusiasm altogether and carried
emphasis beyond the bounds of sanity. She had become, as Frances put it,
extremely tiresome.

It was not accurate to say, as Mrs. Fleming did, that you never knew
when Emmeline would start a nervous crisis; for as a matter of fact you
could time her to a minute. It was her habit to wait till her family was
absorbed in some urgent affair that diverted attention from her case,
and then to break out alarmingly. Dorothy was generally sent for to
bring her round; but to-day it was Dorothy who had important things on
hand. Aunt Emmeline had scented the Suffrage meeting from afar, and had
made arrangements beforehand for a supreme crisis that would take all
the shine out of Dorothy's affair.

When Frances said that Aunt Emmy had been tiresome again, Dorothy knew
what she meant. For Aunt Emmy's idea was that her sisters persecuted
her; that Edie was jealous of her and hated her; that Louie had always
trampled on her and kept her under; that Frances had used her influence
with Grannie to spoil all her chances one after another. It was all
Frances's fault that Vera Harrison had come between her and Major
Cameron; Frances had encouraged Vera in her infamous intrigue; and
between them they had wrecked two lives. And they had killed
Major Cameron.

Since Ferdie's death Emmeline Fleming had lived most of the time in a
sort of dream in which it seemed to her that these things had
really happened.

This afternoon she had been more than usually tiresome. She had simply
raved.

"You should have brought her round to the meeting," said Dorothy, "and
let her rave there. I'd back Aunt Emmeline against Maud Blackadder. I
wish, Rosalind, you'd leave off making faces and kicking my shins. You
needn't worry any more, Mummy ducky. I'm going to rope them all into
the Suffrage Movement. Aunt Edie can distribute literature, Aunt Louie
can interrupt like anything, and Aunt Emmeline can shout and sing."

"I think, Dorothy,"