and you are so far gone in politics now that the
revelation--if it came about--that you were deceived by me
and by my "father"--would do you no harm. For a number of
reasons I know pretty well that the Benchers would not make
themselves ridiculous by having the story of my successful
entry into their citadel told in open court. I have in fact,
through a devious channel, received the assurance that if I
do not resume this character (of D.V.W.) nothing more will
be said. What, then, have I to fear? My mother _s'est bien
rangee_. She leads a life of the most respectable. If they
challenge her, she can counter with some of the most piquant
scandals of the last thirty years.

My own careful study of criminology and the assiduous
searchings of Albert Adams in the same direction; my
mother's anecdotes of the lives of statesmen,
police-magistrates, prosecuting counsel, judges,
press-editors--many of whom have enjoyed her hospitality
abroad--have given me numerous hints in what direction to
pursue my researches. Consequently the office of Mr.
Michaelis will be the Criminal Investigation Department of
the W.S.P.U. I feel instinctively I am touching pitch and
that you will disapprove ... but if we are to fight with
clean hands, _que Messieurs les Assassins commencent_! If
Scotland Yards drops slander and infamous suggestions as a
weapon we will let our poisoned arrows rust in the armoury.

How _beastly_ all this is! _Why_ do they drive us to these
extremes? I know already enough to blast the characters of
several among our public men. Yet I know in so doing I
should wreck the life-happiness of faithful wives, believing
sisters or daughters, or bright-faced children. Perhaps I
won't, when it comes to the pinch. But somehow, I think, if
they guess I have this knowledge in my possession, they will
leave David Williams and Kate Warren alone.

Sometimes, d'you know, I wake up in the middle of the night
at the Lilacs or in my reconstituted bedroom at 88-90, and
wish I were quit of all this Suffrage business, all this
vain struggle against predominant man--and away with you on
a Pacific Island. Then I realize that we should have large
cockroaches and innumerable sand fleas in our new home, that
we should have broken Linda's heart, have set b