"
Honoria acted towards the Suffrage movement somewhat as in
older-fashioned days of Second Empire laxity well-to-do people
evaded military service under conscription by paying a substitute to
take their place in the fighting line. On account of her husband,
and the children she had just had or was going to have, she did not
throw herself into the physical struggle; but she still continued
out of her brother's ear-marked money to subsidize the cause. Rather
regretfully, she looked on from a motor, a balcony, a front window
or the safe plinth of some huge statue, whilst her comrades, with
less to risk physically and socially, matched their strength of
will, their trained muscles, their agility, astuteness and feminine
charm (seldom without some effect) against the brute force and
imperturbability of the Police.
The struggle waxed hot and fierce in the early months of 1910. Vivie
held herself somewhat in the background also, not wishing to strike
publicly and effectively until she was sure for what principle she
endangered her life and liberty. Nevertheless she became a resource
of rising importance to the Suffrage cause. She was known to have
had a clever barrister cousin who for some reasons best known to
himself had of late kept in the background--ill-health, said some;
an unfortunate love affair, said another. But his pamphlet on the
White Slave Traffic on the Continent showed that he was still at
work.
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