"
MARGOT: "Was your husband a respectable man and did he know
anything about it?"
THE WOMAN: "My husband was highly respected. He was a stone-mason,
and well to do, and knew nothing at all till I was arrested. ...
He thought I made money sewing."
MARGOT: "Poor man, how tragic!"
After this rather stupid ejaculation of mine, she relapsed into a
frozen silence and I got up off the ground and asked her if she
liked books. No answer. If the food was good? No answer. If her
bed was clean and comfortable? But all my questions were in vain.
At last she broke the silence by saying:
"You said just now that you might be able to help me. There is
only one thing in the world that I want, and you could not help to
get it . ... No one can help me ..."
MARGOT: "Tell me what you want. How can I or any one else help you
while you sit on the ground, neither speaking nor eating? Get up
and I will listen to you; otherwise I shall go away."
After this she got up stiffly and lifted her arms in a stretch
above her head, showing the outline of her fine bust. I said to
her:
"I would like to help you."
THE WOMAN: "I want to see one person and only one. I think of
nothing else and wonder night and day how it could be managed."
MARGOT: "Tell me who it is, this one person, that you think of and
want so much to see."
THE WOMAN: "I want to see Mrs. Asquith."
MARGOT (dumb with surprise): "Why?"
THE WOMAN: "Because she is only just married and will never again
have as much influence over her husband as she has now; and I am
told she is kind .
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