Wade would not bear looking into. At the house of Mr. Murgatroyd,
the Radical dentist, he found two or three friends who were very
anxious not to think evil of their victorious leader, but felt
wholly at a loss for satisfactory explanations. Mr. Vawdrey, the
coal-merchant, talked with gruff discontent.
"I don't believe there's been anything wrong; I couldn't think it--
neither of him nor her. But I do say it's a lesson to you men who go
in for Female Suffrage Now, this is just the kind of thing that 'ud
always be happening. If there isn't wrong-doing, there'll be
wrong-speaking. Women have no business in politics, that's the plain
moral of it. Let them keep at home and do their duty."
"Humbug!" cried Mr. Chown, who cared little for the graces of
dialogue. "A political principle is not to be at the mercy of party
scandal. I, for my part, have never maintained that women were ripe
for public duties but Radicalism involves the certainty that they
some day will be. The fact of the matter is that Mrs. Quarrier was a
woman of unusually feeble physique. We all know--those of us, at
all events, who keep up with the science of the day--that the mind
is entirely dependent upon the body--entirely!" He looked round,
daring his friends to contradict this. "Mrs. Quarrier had overtaxed
her strength, and it's just possible--I say its just possible--
that her husband was not very prudent m sending her for necessary
repose to the house of a woman so active-minded and so excitable as
Mrs.
Pages:
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330