Part 4
It was not Ann Veronica's fault that the night's work should have
taken upon itself the forms of wild burlesque. She was in deadly
earnest in everything she did. It seemed to her the last
desperate attack upon the universe that would not let her live as
she desired to live, that penned her in and controlled her and
directed her and disapproved of her, the same invincible
wrappering, the same leaden tyranny of a universe that she had
vowed to overcome after that memorable conflict with her father
at Morningside Park.
She was listed for the raid--she was informed it was to be a raid
upon the House of Commons, though no particulars were given
her--and told to go alone to 14, Dexter Street, Westminster, and
not to ask any policeman to direct her. 14, Dexter Street,
Westminster, she found was not a house but a yard in an obscure
street, with big gates and the name of Podgers & Carlo, Carriers
and Furniture Removers, thereon. She was perplexed by this, and
stood for some seconds in the empty street hesitating, until the
appearance of another circumspect woman under the street lamp at
the corner reassured her. In one of the big gates was a little
door, and she rapped at this. It was immediately opened by a man
with light eyelashes and a manner suggestive of restrained
passion. "Come right in," he hissed under his breath, with the
true conspirator's note, closed the door very softly and pointed,
"Through there!"
By the meagre light of a gas lamp she perceived a cobbled yard
with four large furniture vans standing with horses and lamps
alight. A slender young man, wearing glasses, appeared from the
shadow of the nearest van. "Are you A, B, C, or D?" he asked.
"They told me D," said Ann Veronica.
"Through there," he said, and pointed with the pamphlet he was
carrying.
Ann Veronica found herself in a little stirring crowd of excited
women, whispering and tittering and speaking in undertones.
The light was poor, so that she saw their gleaming faces dimly
and indistinctly. No one spoke to her. She stood among them,
watching them and feeling curiously alien to them. The oblique
ruddy lighting distorted them oddly, made queer bars and patches
of shadow upon their clothes. "It's Kitty's idea," said one, "we
are to go in the vans."
"Kitty is wonderful," said another.
"Wonderful!"
"I have always longed for prison service," said a voice, "always.
From the beginning. But it's only now I'm able to do it."
A little blond creature close at hand suddenly gave way to a fit
of hysterical laughter, and caught up the end of it with a sob.
"Before I took up the Suffrage," a firm, flat voice remarked, "I
could scarcely walk up-stairs without palpitations."
Some one hidden from Ann Veronica appeared to be marshalling the
assembly. "We have to get in, I think," said a nice little old
lady in a bonnet to Ann Veronica, speaking with a voice that
quavered a little. "My dear, can you see in this light? I think
I would like to get in. Which is C?"
Ann Veronica, with a curious sinking of the heart, regarded the
black cavities of the vans. Their doors stood open, and placards
with big letters indicated the section assigned to each. She
directed the little old woman and then made her way to van D. A
young woman with a white badge on her arm stood and counted the
sections as they entered their vans.
"When they tap the roof," she said, in a voice of authority, "you
are to come out. You will be opposite the big entrance in Old
Palace Yard. It's the public entrance. You are to make for that
and get into the lobby if you can, and so try and reach the floor
of the House, crying 'Votes for Women!' as you go."
She spoke like a mistress addressing school-children.
"Don't bunch too much as you come out," she added.
"All right?" asked the man with the light eyelashes, suddenly
appearing in the doorway. He waited for an instant, wasting an
encouraging smile in the imperfect light, and then shut the doors
of the van, leaving the women in darkness. . . .
The van started with a jerk and rumbled on its way.
"It's like Troy!" said a voice of rapture. "It's exactly like Troy!"
