If they are worth anything at
all, they will declare that England sha'n't go in for the chance of
war just to please that Jew phrase-monger. I'm ready enough for a
fight, on sound occasion, but I won't fight in obedience to Dizzy
and the music-halls! By jingo, no!"
He laughed uproariously.
"You won't get many Polterham women to see it in that light,"
observed the widow. "This talk about the ascendency of England is
just the thing to please them. They adore Dizzy, because he is a fop
who has succeeded brilliantly; they despise Gladstone, because he is
conscientious and an idealist. Surely I don't need to tell you
this?"
She leaned forward, smiling into his face.
"Well," he exclaimed, with a laugh, "of course I can admit, if you
like, that most women are _not_ worth anything politically. But why
should I be uncivil?"
Mrs. Wade answered in a low voice, strangely gentle.
"Don't I know their silliness and worthlessness? What woman has more
reason to be ashamed of her sex?"
"Let us--hope!"
"For the millennium--yes." Her eyes gleamed, and she went on in a
more accustomed tone. "Women are the great reactionary force. In
political and social matters their native baseness shows itself on a
large scale. They worship the vulgar, the pretentious, the false.
Here they will most of them pester their husbands to vote for
Welwyn-Baker just because they hate change with the hatred of weak
fear.
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