As to their
employers, they had all been heavily insured, and recovered the
value of their buildings; and as to the insurance companies _they_
had all been so enriched by Mr. Lloyd George's legislation that the
one-or-two hundred thousand pounds they had lost, through Vivie's
revenge for the seemingly-fruitless death of Emily Wilding Davison,
was a bagatelle not worth bothering about. But all attempts to get
the Home Office to reconsider Miss Warren's case or to shorten her
imprisonment (except by the abridgment that could be earned in the
prison itself) were unavailing. So long as the Cabinet held Vivie
under lock and key, the Suffrage movement--they foolishly
believed--was hamstrung.
So the months went by, and Vivie almost lost count of time and
almost became content to wait. Till War was declared on August 4th,
1914. A few days afterwards followed the amnesty to Suffragist
prisoners. From this the Home Office strove at first to exclude
Vivien Warren on the plea that her crime was an ordinary crime and
admitted of no political justification; but at this the wrath of
Rossiter and the indignation of the W.S.P.U. became so alarming that
the agitated Secretary of State--not at all sure how we were going
to come out of the War--gave way, and an order was signed for
Vivie's release on the 11th of August; on the understanding that she
would immediately proceed abroad; an understanding to which she
would not subscribe but which in her slowly-formed hatred of the
British Government she resolved to carry out.
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