Rosalind bent over and whispered something in her ear.  She rose to her feet again, flushed, smiling at them, triumphant.

“Our Chairwoman has reminded me that I came here to tell you what the program of our Union is.  And I can tell you in six words.  It’s Hell-for-leather, and it’s Neck-or-nothing!”

“Now,” said Rosalind sweetly, bowing towards Miss Burstall, “it’s your turn.  We should like to know what you have to say.”

Miss Burstall did not rise and in the end Dorothea spoke.

“My friend, Miss Rosalind Jervis, assumed that we were all agreed, not only as to our aims, but as to our policy.  She has not yet discriminated between constitutional and unconstitutional means.  When we protested, she quashed our protest.  We took exception to the phrase ’every means in our power,’ because that would commit us to all sorts of unconstitutional things.  It is in my power to squirt water into the back of the Prime Minister’s neck, or to land a bomb in the small of his back, or in the centre of the platform at his next public meeting.  We were left to conclude that the only differences between us would concern our choice of the squirt or the bomb.  As some of us here might equally object to using the bomb or the squirt, I submit that either our protest should have been allowed or our agreement should not have been taken for granted at the start.

“Again, Miss Maud Blackadder, in her sporting speech, her heroic speech, has not cleared the question.  She has appealed to us to come in, without counting the cost; but she has said nothing to convince us that when our account at our bank is overdrawn, and we have declared war on all our male friends and relations, and have left our comfortable homes, and are all camping out on the open Heath—­I repeat, she has said nothing to convince us that the price we shall have paid is going to get us the thing we want.

“She says that fighters are wanted, and not talkers and writers and thinkers.  Are we not then to fight with our tongues and with our brains?  Is she leaving us anything but our bare fists?  She has told us that she rides straight and that she doesn’t funk her fences; but she has not told us what sort of country she is going to ride over, nor where the fences are, not what Hell-for-leather and Neck-or-nothing means.

“We want meaning; we want clearness and precision.  We have not been given it yet.

“I would let all this pass if Miss Blackadder were not your colour-sergeant.  Is it fair to call for volunteers, for raw recruits, and not tell them precisely and clearly what services will be required of them?  How many” (Dorothy glanced at the eleven) “realize that the leaders of your Union, Mrs. Palmerston-Swete, and Mrs. Blathwaite, and Miss Angela Blathwaite, demand from its members blind, unquestioning obedience?”

Maud Blackadder jumped up.

“I protest.  I, too, have the right to protest.  Miss Harrison calls me to order.  She tells me to be clear and precise.  Will she be good enough to be clear and precise herself?  Will she say whether she is with us or against us?  If she is not with us she is against us.  Let her explain her position.”