Suffragette Girl by Margaret Dickinson Read Free Book Online Page B

credibility as
serious-minded women?’
    Isobel stared at her for a moment, a flicker of doubt in her expression.
    Hastily, Florrie sought to reassure her. ‘Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for anything that will work – believe me.’ She shrugged. ‘I’m just trying to
work out why it’s become necessary to resort to such tactics. I want to understand, that’s all.’
    ‘Talking hasn’t done much good. So our motto is “Deeds, not Words”. Membership is only for women.’ Isobel chuckled. ‘So even the Hon. Tim here can’t be
a member.’
    He peered round the edge of his newspaper. ‘Ah, but I am an
“honorary”
member.’
    The two girls groaned at his pun.
    ‘Did you know that Emmeline and her daughter, Christabel Pankhurst, were imprisoned in 1908 for inciting a rush on the House of Commons?’ Isobel went on. ‘One woman actually
reached the Chamber and declared that she’d made her first speech on the floor of the House.’ Her eyes shone. ‘I’d love to do that. To stand up in front of all those old
fuddy-duddies and tell them what’s what.’
    ‘No, that was before I started taking a real interest.’
    ‘Of course, it’s not just in Britain that the cause for women’s suffrage is being fought. There was an international convention held in London in 1909 and an American woman
chaired it. I wasn’t there, but Lady Leonora has told me all about it. Then two months later she was involved in demonstrations outside Parliament and Number Ten. There were over a hundred
women arrested that day and Lady Leonora was one of them.’
    ‘Arrested? Lady Leonora?’ Florrie was appalled and yet fascinated at what she was hearing. Then she remembered what Isobel had told her previously. ‘Was that one of the
occasions she went to prison?’
    ‘Yes,’ Isobel waved her hand nonchalantly. ‘And we’ve got to be prepared for that, too, Florrie dear.’
    ‘I never realized it would involve – well – someone of Lady Leonora’s position actually going to prison.’
    Isobel laughed. ‘It’s a great leveller, this suffrage business. All classes of women are involved.’
    ‘So what’s been happening recently?’
    Isobel’s face sobered quickly. ‘We’ve been burning pillar-boxes, setting off false fire alarms, breaking windows in city-centre stores. There’ve been more arrests.
Nowadays, those arrested normally go on hunger strike in prison. Marion Dunlop started it first, I think, and because the authorities were afraid she’d die in custody, they released her. So,
after that, all the suffragettes who were imprisoned tried it.’
    ‘As a way of getting out of prison, you mean?’
    Isobel laughed wryly. ‘If only! No, the authorities brought in force-feeding.’
    Florrie nodded and said soberly, ‘Yes, I’ve read about that too. It sounds ghastly.’
    ‘It is, and quite dangerous. We all think that Mrs Pankhurst’s own sister died as a result of being force-fed in Holloway. She didn’t die
in
prison,’ Isobel
added hastily. ‘Oh no, they minded that didn’t happen, but she died soon after her release and we all think that was what caused it.’
    ‘I see,’ Florrie said thoughtfully. This was no longer a ‘lark’. This was serious stuff – deadly serious. Violence that resulted in imprisonment, and the dire
treatment she might receive there.
    ‘And I think I should warn you I have the feeling that activities are going to escalate. We’ve tried peaceful demonstrations.’ She smiled. ‘And not so peaceful ones.
We’ve lobbied the House of Commons, written to MPs and refused to be counted in the Census of 1911. The government dangled the carrot of the Conciliation Bill that would give the vote to
property-owning women, but then kept putting it back. Promises – that’s all we ever get. But you know all this, Florrie, I’m sure, if you’ve read your grandmother’s
newspapers.’
    ‘Some of it,’ Florrie murmured.
    ‘So,’ Isobel ended, ‘are you willing to