'So should I,' observed Mrs. Freddy, meekly. 'Don't think I defended the Suffragettes.'
'But still,' said Miss Levering, with a faint accent of impatience, 'you are an advocate for the Suffrage, aren't you?'
'I don't beat the air.'
'Only policemen,' Greatorex mocked.
'If you cared to know the attitude of the real workers in the Reform,' Mrs. Freddy said plaintively, 'you might have seen in any paper that we lost no time in dissociating ourselves from the two or three hysterical——' She caught her brother-in-law's critical eye, and instantly checked her flow of words.
There was a general movement as Greatorex made his good-byes. Mrs. Heriot signalled her daughter.
In the absence of the master, Lord Borrodaile made ready to do the honours of the house to a lady who had had so little profit of her visit. Beeching carried off the reluctant Farnborough. Mrs. Freddy kept up her spirits until after the exodus; then, with a sigh, she sat down beside Vida. 'It's true what that old cynic says,' she admitted sorrowfully. 'The scene has put back the Reform a generation.'
'It must have been awfully exciting. I wish I'd been there,' said Jean.
'I was there.'
'Oh, was it as bad as the papers said?'