Lena Dubarri, who was the captain-general of
their thinking department, met Waldo Orpington in the Mall one afternoon,
just at a time when the fortunes of the Cause were at their lowest ebb.
Waldo Orpington is a frivolous little fool who chirrups at drawing-room
concerts and can recognise bits from different composers without
referring to the programme, but all the same he occasionally has ideas.
He didn't care a twopenny fiddlestring about the Cause, but he rather
enjoyed the idea of having his finger in the political pie. Also it is
possible, though I should think highly improbable, that he admired Lena
Dubarri. Anyhow, when Lena gave a rather gloomy account of the existing
state of things in the Suffragette World, Waldo was not merely
sympathetic but ready with a practical suggestion. Turning his gaze
westward along the Mall, towards the setting sun and Buckingham Palace,
he was silent for a moment, and then said significantly, 'You have
expended your energies and enterprise on labours of destruction; why has
it never occurred to you to attempt something far more terrific?'
"'What do you mean?' she asked him eagerly.
"'Create.'
"'Do you mean create disturbances? We've been doing nothing else for
months,' she said.
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