John Bull's Womankind (Les Filles de John Bull)O'Rell, Max
General
John Bull's Womankind (Les Filles de John Bull)
O'Rell, Max
England -- Social life and customs; Women -- Great Britain
_Mrs. G._--"Don't look, I tell you; there are the Watsons just
passing; I don't want to speak to them.... Fancy their being here! I
am sure I always thought they would be cooked! ... rolling in riches,
and yet putting threepenny bits in the collection-box! ... and
refusing to subscribe to the old spire restoration fund. They got in
cheaply, and no mistake!... It is all very well to talk, but the best
way of proving your interest in a good cause is to put your hand in
your pocket.... Ah! one sees strange things here.... I hope you mean
to speak at the meeting, Bartie dear?"
_Rev. B. G._--"What meeting, my love?"
_Mrs. G._--"What meeting? Ah! my poor dear, don't you know anything
about it? Really, one would think you had just fallen here from the
moon.... How like you!... Alas! always the same apathy; you have not
changed a bit. But thanks be, there are energetic people here, who
have the grievances of their countrymen at heart ... we shall protest
against the indifference that we meet with on all sides here. We shall
call attention to all that we have done on earth, stand upon our
rights, and get up a petition."
_Rev. B. G._--"I suppose you belong to the organising committee?"
_Mrs. G._--"I have placed all my energy at the disposal of the
committee. Ever since I have been here I have been longing to devote
my feeble powers to the revindication of our rights to the undivided
heritage of the highest abode in the realms of the blessed.... Saint
Peter, who, I am bound to say, is very obliging, has kindly consented
to take the chair.... I have had such a great deal to do."
_Rev. B. G._--"As secretary?"
_Mrs. G._--"Exactly: the part of organising secretary is one that I
have always had a great taste for, as you know ... one does not change
at my age. Do you see all those people going towards the orange
gardens? it is there that the meeting is to be held.... There are the
Watsons coming back this way; ... they are evidently going to the
meeting. Well, all I can say is, they must be bare-faced enough to go
and protest ... however!... Look! positively, they have espied us....
Let us get up ... it is impossible to avoid them now."
_Mrs. Watson._--"Ah! it is our dear vicar! dear Mrs. Goodman, what a
happy thing! at last, thanks to the initiative taken by zealous
compatriots, we are to carry our complaints before the tribunal of
justice.... In an hour the meeting begins.... Shall we walk together?"
_Mrs. G._--"With pleasure."
_Mrs. W._--"On the way we shall be able to talk of old times and the
friends we left in our dear little town.... Ah! Mrs. Goodman, they
little dream of what we are doing on their behalf."
_Mrs. G._--(_Aside to her husband_)--"What impudence! _we_ indeed!"
(_The group, now followed by an immense crowd, proceeds towards the
orange gardens._)
GRAND DEMONSTRATION. INDIGNATION MEETING.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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