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for a good while. You must be needin' a cup o' tea yerself.' 'In India I'm told they burn the widows. In England they do worse than that. They keep them _half_ alive.' The crowd rose to that, with the pinched proof before their eyes. 'Just enough alive to suffer through their children. And so the workin' women round about where I live--that's 'Ackney--they say if we ain't 'eathins in this country let's give up 'eathin ways. Let the mothers o' this country 'ave their 'ands untied. We're willin' to work for our children, but it breaks our 'earts to work without tools. The tool we're needin' is the tool that mends the laws. I 'ave pleasure in secondin' the resolution.' With nervously twitching lips the woman sat down. They cheered her lustily--a little out of sympathy, a good deal from relief that she had finished, and a very different sort of person was being introduced by the chairman. CHAPTER IX 'I will now call upon the last speaker. Yes, I will answer any general questions _after_ Miss Ernestine Blunt has spoken.' 'Oh, I sy!' ''Ere's Miss Blunt.' 'Not that little one?' 'Yes. This is the one I was tellin' you about.' People pushed and craned their necks, the crowd swayed as the other one of the two youngest 'Suffragettes' came forward. She had been sitting very quietly in her corner of the cart, looking the least concerned person in Hyde Park. Almost dull the round rather pouting face with the vivid scarlet lips; almost sleepy the heavy-lidded eyes. But when she had taken the speaker's post above the crowd, the onlooker wondered why he had not noticed her before. It seemed probable that all save those quite new to the scene had been keeping an eye on this person, who, despite her childish look, was plainly no new recruit. Her self-possession demonstrated that as abundantly as the reception she got--the vigorous hoots and hoorays in the midst of clapping and cries-- 'Does your mother know you're out?' 'Go 'ome and darn your stockens.' 'Hurrah!' 'You're a disgryce!' 'I bet on little Blunt!' 'Boo!' Even in that portion of the crowd that did not relieve its feelings by either talking or shouting, there was observable the indefinable something that says, 'Now the real fun's going to begin.' You see the same sort of manifestation in the playhouse when the favourite comedian makes his entrance. He may have come on quite soberly only to say, 'Tea is ready,' but the grin on
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