'Ugh!' Hermione exchanged looks of horror with Paul Filey.
'Oh, yes,' said Lady John, with disgust, 'we saw all that in the papers.'
Miss Levering, too, had turned her face away—not as Hermione did, to summon a witness to her detestation, but rather as one avoiding the eyes of the men.
'You see,' said Farnborough, with gusto, 'there's something about women's clothes—especially their hats, you know—they—well, they ain't built for battle.'
'They ought to wear deer-stalkers,' was Lady Sophia's contribution to the New Movement.
'It is quite true,' Lady John agreed, 'that a woman in a scrimmage can never be a heroic figure.'
'No, that's just it,' said Farnborough. 'She's just funny, don't you know!'
'I don't agree with you about the fun,' Borrodaile objected. 'That's why I'm glad they've had their lesson. I should say there was almost nothing more degrading than this public spectacle of——' Borrodaile lifted his high shoulders higher still, with an effect of intense discomfort. 'It never but once came my way that I remember, but I'm free to own,' he said, 'there's nothing that shakes my nerves like seeing a woman struggling and kicking in a policeman's arms.'
But Farnborough was not to be dissuaded from seeing humour in the situation.
'They say they swept up a peck of hairpins after the battle!'