You may be sure the men will stand out another fifty
years over _that_ surrender. I alternate in my moods between the
reckless fury of an Anarchist and the lassitude of Lord Rosebery. To
think that I was once so elated and conceited about being a Third
Wrangler...!"
With the closing months of 1912, however, there was a greater
tenseness, a sharpening of the struggle which once more roused
Vivie to keen interest. When she returned from an autumn visit to
Villa Beau-sejour she found there had been a split between the
"Peths" and the "Panks." The Girondist section of the women
suffragists had separated from those who could see no practical
policy to win the Vote but a regime of Terrorism--mild terrorism, it
is true--somewhat that of the Curate in _The Private Secretary_ who
at last told his persecutors he should _really have to give them a
good hard knock_. The Peths drew back before the Pankish programme
(mild as this would seem, to us of Bolshevik days and of Irish
insurrection). _Votes for Women_ returned to the control of the
Pethick Lawrences, and the Pankhurst party to which Vivie belonged
were to start a new press organ, _The Suffragette_.
The Panks, it seemed, had a more acute fore-knowledge than the
Peths. The latter had felt they were forcing an open door; that the
Liberal Ministry would eventually squeeze a measure of Female
Suffrage into the long-discussed Franchise Bill; and that too much
militancy was disgusting the general public with the Woman's cause.
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