Beyond the City

Chapter 5

It was the habit of the Doctor and the Admiral to

accompany each other upon a morning ramble between

breakfast and lunch. The dwellers in those quiet

tree-lined roads were accustomed to see the two figures,

the long, thin, austere seaman, and the short, bustling,

tweed-clad physician, pass and repass with such

regularity that a stopped clock has been reset by them.

The Admiral took two steps to his companion's three, but

the younger man was the quicker, and both were equal to

a good four and a half miles an hour.

It was a lovely summer day which followed the events

which have been described. The sky was of the deepest

blue, with a few white, fleecy clouds drifting lazily

across it, and the air was filled with the low drone of

insects or with a sudden sharper note as bee or bluefly

shot past with its quivering, long-drawn hum, like an

insect tuning-fork. As the friends topped each rise

which leads up to the Crystal Palace, they could see the

dun clouds of London stretching along the northern

sky-line, with spire or dome breaking through the

low-lying haze. The Admiral was in high spirits, for the

morning post had brought good news to his son.

"It is wonderful, Walker," he was saying, "positively

wonderful, the way that boy of mine has gone ahead during

the last three years. We heard from Pearson to-day.

Pearson is the senior partner, you know, and my boy the

junior--Pearson and Denver the firm. Cunning old dog is

Pearson, as cute and as greedy as a Rio shark. Yet he

goes off for a fortnight's leave, and puts my boy in full

charge, with all that immense business in his hands,

and a freehand to do what he likes with it. How's that

for confidence, and he only three years upon 'Change?"

"Any one would confide in him. His face is a

surety," said the Doctor.

"Go on, Walker!" The Admiral dug his elbow at him.

"You know my weak side. Still it's truth all the same.

I've been blessed with a good wife and a good son, and

maybe I relish them the more for having been cut off from

them so long. I have much to be thankful for!"

"And so have I. The best two girls that ever

stepped. There's Clara, who has learned up as much

medicine as would give her the L.S.A., simply in order

that she may sympathize with me in my work. But hullo,

what is this coming along?"

"All drawing and the wind astern!" cried the Admiral.

"Fourteen knots if it's one. Why, by George, it is that

woman!"

A rolling cloud of yellow dust had streamed round the

curve of the road, and from the heart of it had emerged

a high tandem tricycle flying along at a breakneck pace.

In front sat Mrs. Westmacott clad in a heather tweed

pea-jacket, a skirt which just{?} passed her knees and a

pair of thick gaiters of the same material. She had a

great bundle of red papers under her arm, while

Charles, who sat behind her clad in Norfolk jacket and

knickerbockers, bore a similar roll protruding from

either pocket. Even as they watched, the pair eased up,

the lady sprang off, impaled one of her bills upon the

garden railing of an empty house, and then jumping on to

her seat again was about to hurry onwards when her nephew

drew her attention to the two gentlemen upon the

footpath.

"Oh, now, really I didn't notice you," said she,

taking a few turns of the treadle and steering the

machine across to them. "Is it not a beautiful morning?"

"Lovely," answered the Doctor. "You seem to be very

busy."

"I am very busy." She pointed to the colored paper

which still fluttered from the railing. "We have been

pushing our propaganda, you see. Charles and I have been

at it since seven o'clock. It is about our meeting. I

wish it to be a great success. See!" She smoothed out

one of the bills, and the Doctor read his own name in

great black letters across the bottom.

"We don't forget our chairman, you see. Everybody is

coming. Those two dear little old maids opposite, the

Williamses, held out for some time; but I have their

promise now. Admiral, I am sure that you wish us well."

"Hum! I wish you no harm, ma'am."

"You will come on the platform?"

"I'll be---- No, I don't think I can do that."

"To our meeting, then?"

"No, ma'am; I don't go out after dinner."

"Oh yes, you will come. I will call in if I may, and

chat it over with you when you come home. We have not

breakfasted yet. Goodbye!" There was a whir of wheels,

and the yellow cloud rolled away down the road again. By

some legerdemain the Admiral found that he was clutching

in his right hand one of the obnoxious bills. He

crumpled it up, and threw it into the roadway.

"I'll be hanged if I go, Walker," said he, as be

resumed his walk. "I've never been hustled into doing a

thing yet, whether by woman or man."

"I am not a betting man," answered the Doctor, "but

I rather think that the odds are in favor of your going."

The Admiral had hardly got home, and had just seated

himself in his dining-room, when the attack upon him was

renewed. He was slowly and lovingly unfolding the

Times preparatory to the long read which led up to

luncheon, and had even got so far as to fasten his golden

pince-nez on to his thin, high-bridged nose, when he

heard a crunching of gravel, and, looking over the top of

his paper, saw Mrs. Westmacott coming up the garden walk.

She was still dressed in the singular costume which

offended the sailor's old-fashioned notions of propriety,

but he could not deny, as he looked at her, that she was

a very fine woman. In many climes he had looked upon

women of all shades and ages, but never upon a more

clearcut, handsome face, nor a more erect, supple, and

womanly figure. He ceased to glower as he gazed upon

her, and the frown smoothed away from his rugged brow.

"May I come in?" said she, framing herself in the

open window, with a background of green sward and blue

sky. "I feel like an invader deep in an enemy's

country."

"It is a very welcome invasion, ma'am," said he,

clearing his throat and pulling at his high collar. "Try

this garden chair. What is there that I can do for you?

Shall I ring and let Mrs. Denver know that you are here?"

"Pray do not trouble, Admiral. I only looked in with

reference to our little chat this morning. I wish that

you would give us your powerful support at our coming

meeting for the improvement of the condition of woman."

"No, ma'am, I can't do that." He pursed up his lips

and shook his grizzled head.

"And why not?"

"Against my principles, ma'am."

"But why?"

"Because woman has her duties and man has his.

I may be old-fashioned, but that is my view. Why, what

is the world coming to? I was saying to Dr. Walker only

last night that we shall have a woman wanting to command

the Channel Fleet next."

"That is one of the few professions which cannot be

improved," said Mrs. Westmacott, with her sweetest smile.

"Poor woman must still look to man for protection."

"I don't like these new-fangled ideas, ma'am. I tell

you honestly that I don't. I like discipline, and I

think every one is the better for it. Women have got a

great deal which they had not in the days of our fathers.

They have universities all for themselves, I am told, and

there are women doctors, I hear. Surely they should rest

contented. What more can they want?"

"You are a sailor, and sailors are always chivalrous.

If you could see how things really are, you would change

your opinion. What are the poor things to do? There

are so many of them and so few things to which they can

turn their hands. Governesses? But there are hardly any

situations. Music and drawing? There is not one in

fifty who has any special talent in that direction.

Medicine? It is still surrounded with difficulties for

women, and it takes many years and a small fortune to

qualify. Nursing? It is hard work ill paid, and none

but the strongest can stand it. What would you have

them do then, Admiral? Sit down and starve?"

"Tut, tut! It is not so bad as that."

"The pressure is terrible. Advertise for a lady

companion at ten shillings a week, which is less than a

cook's wage, and see how many answers you get. There is

no hope, no outlook, for these struggling thousands.

Life is a dull, sordid struggle, leading down to a

cheerless old age. Yet when we try to bring some little

ray of hope, some chance, however distant, of something

better, we are told by chivalrous gentlemen that it is

against their principles to help."

The Admiral winced, but shook his head in dissent.

"There is banking, the law, veterinary surgery,

government offices, the civil service, all these at least

should be thrown freely open to women, if they have

brains enough to compete successfully for them. Then if

woman were unsuccessful it would be her own fault, and

the majority of the population of this country could no

longer complain that they live under a different law to

the minority, and that they are held down in poverty and

serfdom, with every road to independence sealed to them."

"What would you propose to do, ma'am?"

"To set the more obvious injustices right, and so

to pave the way for a reform. Now look at that man

digging in the field. I know him. He can neither read

nor write, he is steeped in whisky, and he has as much

intelligence as the potatoes that he is digging. Yet the

man has a vote, can possibly turn the scale of an

election, and may help to decide the policy of this

empire. Now, to take the nearest example, here am I, a

woman who have had some education, who have traveled, and

who have seen and studied the institutions of many

countries. I hold considerable property, and I pay more

in imperial taxes than that man spends in whisky, which

is saying a great deal, and yet I have no more direct

influence upon the disposal of the money which I pay than

that fly which creeps along the wall. Is that right? Is

it fair?"

The Admiral moved uneasily in his chair. "Yours is

an exceptional case," said he.

"But no woman has a voice. Consider that the women

are a majority in the nation. Yet if there was a

question of legislation upon which all women were agreed

upon one side and all the men upon the other, it would

appear that the matter was settled unanimously when more

than half the population were opposed to it. Is that

right?"

Again the Admiral wriggled. It was very awkward for

the gallant seaman to have a handsome woman opposite

to him, bombarding him with questions to none of which he

could find an answer. "Couldn't even get the tompions

out of his guns," as he explained the matter to the

Doctor that evening.

"Now those are really the points that we shall lay

stress upon at the meeting. The free and complete

opening of the professions, the final abolition of the

zenana I call it, and the franchise to all women who pay

Queen's taxes above a certain sum. Surely there is

nothing unreasonable in that. Nothing which could offend

your principles. We shall have medicine, law, and the

church all rallying that night for the protection of

woman. Is the navy to be the one profession absent?"

The Admiral jumped out of his chair with an evil word

in his throat. "There, there, ma'am," he cried. "Drop

it for a time. I have heard enough. You've turned me a

point or two. I won't deny it. But let it stand at

that. I will think it over."

"Certainly, Admiral. We would not hurry you in your

decision. But we still hope to see you on our platform."

She rose and moved about in her lounging masculine

fashion from one picture to another, for the walls were

thickly covered with reminiscences of the Admiral's

voyages.

"Hullo!" said she. "Surely this ship would have

furled all her lower canvas and reefed her topsails if

she found herself on a lee shore with the wind on her

quarter."

"Of course she would. The artist was never past

Gravesend, I swear. It's the Penelope as she was on

the 14th of June, 1857, in the throat of the Straits of

Banca, with the Island of Banca on the starboard bow, and

Sumatra on the port. He painted it from description, but

of course, as you very sensibly say, all was snug below

and she carried storm sails and double-reefed topsails,

for it was blowing a cyclone from the sou'east. I

compliment you, ma'am, I do indeed! "

"Oh, I have done a little sailoring myself--as much

as a woman can aspire to, you know. This is the Bay of

Funchal. What a lovely frigate!"

"Lovely, you say! Ah, she was lovely! That is the

Andromeda. I was a mate aboard of her--sub-lieutenant

they call it now, though I like the old name best."

"What a lovely rake her masts have, and what a curve

to her bows! She must have been a clipper."

The old sailor rubbed his hands and his eyes

glistened. His old ships bordered close upon his wife

and his son in his affections.

"I know Funchal," said the lady carelessly. "A

couple of years ago I had a seven-ton cutter-rigged

yacht, the Banshee, and we ran over to Madeira from

Falmouth."

"You ma'am, in a seven-tonner?"

"With a couple of Cornish lads for a crew. Oh, it

was glorious! A fortnight right out in the open, with no

worries, no letters, no callers, no petty thoughts,

nothing but the grand works of God, the tossing sea and

the great silent sky. They talk of riding, indeed, I am

fond of horses, too, but what is there to compare with

the swoop of a little craft as she pitches down the long

steep side of a wave, and then the quiver and spring as

she is tossed upwards again? Oh, if our souls could

transmigrate I'd be a seamew above all birds that fly!

But I keep you, Admiral. Adieu!"

The old sailor was too transported with sympathy to

say a word. He could only shake her broad muscular hand.

She was half-way down the garden path before she heard

him calling her, and saw his grizzled head and

weather-stained face looking out from behind the

curtains.

"You may put me down for the platform," he cried, and

vanished abashed behind the I curtain of his Times,

where his wife found him at lunch time.

"I hear that you have had quite a long chat with Mrs.

Westmacott," said she.

"Yes, and I think that she is one of the most

sensible women that I ever knew.

"Except on the woman's rights question, of course."

"Oh, I don't know. She had a good deal to say for

herself on that also. In fact, mother, I have taken a

platfom ticket for her meeting."