‘You don’t think,’ she asked earnestly, ‘that we…mother and I…are likely to get heavy sentences for shielding her? It would be beastly bad luck on mother. Because she’s an anti…’ ‘I don’t know about the sentence,’ Tietjens said, ‘but we’d better get her off your premises as soon as we can…’ She said: ‘Oh, you’ll help ?’ He answered: ‘Of course, your mother can’t be incommoded. She’s written the only novel that’s been fit to read since the eighteenth century.’ She stopped and said earnestly: ‘Look here. Don’t be one of those ignoble triflers who say the vote won’t do women any good. Women have a rotten time. They do, really. If you’d seen what I’ve seen, I’m not talking through my hat.’ Her voice became quite deep: she had tears in her eyes: ‘Poor women do!’ she said, ‘little insigni

