登陆注册
5387400000035

第35章 THE THREAT(2)

And of course the great idea for their master-stroke of strategy came from a masculine source. Lena Dubarri, who was the captain-general of their thinking department, met Waldo Orpington in the Mall one afternoon, just at a time when the fortunes of the Cause were at their lowest ebb. Waldo Orpington is a frivolous little fool who chirrups at drawing-room concerts and can recognise bits from different composers without referring to the programme, but all the same he occasionally has ideas. He didn't care a twopenny fiddlestring about the Cause, but he rather enjoyed the idea of having his finger in the political pie. Also it is possible, though I should think highly improbable, that he admired Lena Dubarri.

Anyhow, when Lena gave a rather gloomy account of the existing state of things in the Suffragette World, Waldo was not merely sympathetic but ready with a practical suggestion. Turning his gaze westward along the Mall, towards the setting sun and Buckingham Palace, he was silent for a moment, and then said significantly, 'You have expended your energies and enterprise on labours of destruction; why has it never occurred to you to attempt something far more terrific?'

"'What do you mean?' she asked him eagerly.

"'Create.'

"'Do you mean create disturbances? We've been doing nothing else for months,' she said.

"Waldo shook his head, and continued to look westward along the Mall. He's rather good at acting in an amateur sort of fashion.

Lena followed his gaze, and then turned to him with a puzzled look of inquiry.

"'Exactly,' said Waldo, in answer to her look.

"'But--how can we create?' she asked; 'it's been done already.'

"'Do it AGAIN,' said Waldo, 'and again and again--'

"Before he could finish the sentence she had kissed him. She declared afterwards that he was the first man she had ever kissed, and he declared that she was the first woman who had ever kissed him in the Mall, so they both secured a record of a kind.

"Within the next day or two a new departure was noticeable in Suffragette tactics. They gave up worrying Ministers and Parliament and took to worrying their own sympathisers and supporters--for funds. The ballot-box was temporarily forgotten in the cult of the collecting-box. The daughters of the horseleech were not more persistent in their demands, the financiers of the tottering ancien regime were not more desperate in their expedients for raising money than the Suffragist workers of all sections at this juncture, and in one way and another, by fair means and normal, they really got together a very useful sum. What they were going to do with it no one seemed to know, not even those who were most active in collecting work. The secret on this occasion had been well kept.

Certain transactions that leaked out from time to time only added to the mystery of the situation.

"'Don't you long to know what we are going to do with our treasure hoard?' Lena asked the Prime Minister one day when she happened to sit next to him at a whist drive at the Chinese Embassy.

"'I was hoping you were going to try a little personal bribery,' he responded banteringly, but some genuine anxiety and curiosity lay behind the lightness of his chaff; 'of course I know,' he added, 'that you have been buying up building sites in commanding situations in and around the Metropolis. Two or three, I'm told, are on the road to Brighton, and another near Ascot. You don't mean to fortify them, do you?'

"'Something more insidious than that,' she said; 'you could prevent us from building forts; you can't prevent us from erecting an exact replica of the Victoria Memorial on each of those sites. They're all private property, with no building restrictions attached.'

"'Which memorial?' he asked; 'not the one in front of Buckingham Palace? Surely not that one?'

"'That one,' she said.

"'My dear lady,' he cried, 'you can't be serious. It is a beautiful and imposing work of art--at any rate one is getting accustomed to it, and even if one doesn't happen to admire it one can always look in another direction. But imagine what life would be like if one saw that erection confronting one wherever one went. Imagine the effect on people with tired, harassed nerves who saw it three times on the way to Brighton and three times on the way back. Imagine seeing it dominate the landscape at Ascot, and trying to keep your eye off it on the Sandwich golf links. What have your countrymen done to deserve such a thing?'

"'They have refused us the vote,' said Lena bitterly.

"The Prime Minister always declared himself an opponent of anything savouring of panic legislation, but he brought a Bill into Parliament forthwith and successfully appealed to both Houses to pass it through all its stages within the week. And that is how we got one of the most glorious measures of the century."

"A measure conferring the vote on women?" asked the nephew.

"Oh dear, no. An Act which made it a penal offence to erect commemorative statuary anywhere within three miles of a public highway."

同类推荐
  • 天原发微

    天原发微

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说灌洗佛经

    佛说灌洗佛经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • In the Cage

    In the Cage

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 南山祖师礼赞文

    南山祖师礼赞文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 御定佩文斋书画谱

    御定佩文斋书画谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 销售金口财

    销售金口财

    “交易的成功,往往是口才的产物”,这是美国“超级推销大王”——弗兰克·贝特格近30年推销生涯的经验总结。对于销售人员来说,哪里有声音,哪里就有了力量:哪里有口才,哪里也就吹晌了战斗的号角,进而也就有了成功的希望。《销售金口财》从口才定律、口才技巧等角度立意,用精彩的事例和深入浅出的理论告诉销售员:销售不仅仅是卖产品这么简单,它是在卖你的人品、卖你的能力、卖你的智慧、卖你的口才。良好的口才会使你的业绩倍增,会使你的销售生涯保持常青。
  • 师叔是九尾狐

    师叔是九尾狐

    当伪善小稚女卯上绝色天下的大腹黑,谁是灰狼,谁是羔羊?“动作如此生硬,怎像我得宠的小妾。”本是逃生,却不幸羊入狼口,初吻被掳夺。“戏不做足,怎骗得过众目。”某人腹黑得理所当然……她是顶着神童光环的废材?可笑天下人错把珍珠当鱼目,一朝崛起,自九洲云涌,魂控三界……乱世红尘,却只愿携一手相伴,得一心相照,不离不弃,一生逍遥。清傲师叔:既是历劫,不历情劫,怎算圆满。锦漪:师叔,别再戴着面具装B。腹黑王爷:小妾,快来把名号坐实了。锦漪:包养我者,必倾家荡产。冷情魔尊:我是一出折子戏,把最璀璨的故事留在你的生命里。锦漪:菇凉我只看电视连续剧。风流太子:你是我计划之外的惊艳。锦漪:眼光还不错的说!温润师兄:回眸,我总在灯火阑珊处等你。锦漪:如果灯熄了肿么办……美男多多,桃花多多,乱花渐欲迷人眼,女主该肿么办?
  • 破解戒毒难

    破解戒毒难

    一本从实践中来,通过总结、提炼上升为理论成果,具有指导性作用和操作性较强的戒毒专著。书中对新形势下的戒毒康复进行了有益探索,一是对《禁毒法》实施前后的戒毒康复进行了回顾和总结,在戒毒理念、方法、措施等方面有所创新和发展。二是戒毒康复理念上的创新。三是博采众长,总结了一些好的经验和做法。
  • 妾本倾城

    妾本倾城

    她,南宫汐雪,倾国又倾城,却倾倒不了心中的那个男人?他在死人堆里救起她,给了她新的名字,新的生命,新的开始,陪伴她走过生命中最孤苦的岁月。她倾心于他,愿意给他全部的生命,她的爱,从来不加掩饰!可是他一心权术,他的爱,沉默隐忍,冰冷刻骨,充满伤害,为了权力不惜一次又一次把她推向别人,甚至嫁做人妻!她嫁的那个王爷可一点也不比他差,虽然他是个傻子,可是却有全天下最纯澈最温暖的心。他就不怕她变心吗?*沈墨,靖王府的少爷,冷漠,英俊,残忍,野心勃勃,对女人来说,他是用来膜拜的。他曾失手杀死心爱的女人,被指为蓄意谋杀,愧疚缠绕他数十年,直到另一个人慢慢打开他的心扉…他却已无力爱她。慕容颜,南王府的继承人,他们在荷花池边相遇,命运的齿轮便开始流转。他灿烂,明媚,温暖人心,是傻子却也不是傻子,在她最需要他的时候,毅然站出来承担了一直逃避的生活…颜笙,聪明坚定的皇宫侍卫统领,一直默默守护着她,沉着,冷静,稳重,只要他在,事情总是会有挽回的余地,只要他在,她就很安心…*《倾城》的视频做好了。。哈哈,是未央爱妃和袖子一起做的,挺漂亮的```那首歌也是我超喜欢的来着。亲们有空去看看。?pstyle=0————倾城入了原创大赛复赛,谢谢大家的支持~~推荐自己的新文。《狐戏红尘》
  • 万界苍穹

    万界苍穹

    无限位面,无限天界,无限苍穹!少年崛起于微末!宁欺白头翁,莫欺少年穷!原来,世界就在少年心中,只要有梦想,一切都能只手完成!
  • 市场营销工作制度规范与流程设计

    市场营销工作制度规范与流程设计

    《市场营销工作制度规范与流程设计》通过最新流程图的绘制方法,将每一个工作流程以最清晰、最简单的方式呈现出来,使企业管理工作者可以得到最实用的工具。制度范例从现实工作中的细节入手,对每一项工作环节都作了切合实际的论述,使企业管理工作者可以从中得到具有可操作性的考评依据和培训蓝本。
  • 男儿国的傻公主

    男儿国的傻公主

    物以稀为贵,人也是如此。男儿国的女人,就成了稀有珍宝。男儿国的公主,日子就格外的逍遥自在了。只是,女子少,子孙后代的延续,就成了一个问题。公主殿下,请带领着我国众绝色美男,勾引那国外的女人来生娃娃吧!
  • 奥运精神

    奥运精神

    奥运精神铸就伟大企业,奥运品格塑造接触员工,奥运心态成就辉煌人生。用奥运故事激励员工的最佳读本。每个故事都让你感动、流泪、坚持、成功。秉承“更快、更高、更强”奥运精神,每个人都可以是冠军。
  • 万古魔帝

    万古魔帝

    当修炼界都在为一本灵阶功法争得头破血流的时候,林云已经走在一条自创仙阶功法的路上了,他回过头来发现,那些人在抢夺的不过是自己十年前所创的低阶功法。林云悲悯的叹了口气:“何苦呢,这是我今天刚出炉的仙阶一品功法,拿去吧。”于是,又一场腥风血雨开始了。
  • 史学名家梁园东

    史学名家梁园东

    梁园东先生是二十世纪三、四十年代的著名史学家,本书收入了梁先生论文中主要的、精华的部分,体现了他学术思想的概貌。