morning, she went to Sylvia’s studio in Linden Gardens with the sad news;
Sylvia had spent her Christmas alone there since she had to revise the final
chapters of her forthcoming book, The suffragette, and also prepare for her
American tour which was due to start early in the New Year. Mother and
daughter clung to each other, united in their grief as Emmeline remembered her
favourite sister and Sylvia her favourite aunt.^120 On 27 December 1910, a
grieving and weary Emmeline wrote to C. P. Scott, conveying the sad news and
imploring him to use his influence with the government:
She is the first to die. How many must follow before the men of your
Party realise their responsibility?
I write to you not only because you saw her in prison but because I
believe you perhaps more than any single man outside the Cabinet
have the power to bring this dreadful struggle to an end.
Directly Parliament meets we must begin again unless something is
done.
This year has seen the breaking for me of three of my closest bonds
to this world my boy, my mother & my dearest sister.
Can you wonder that today I want beyond all other things to end
this fight quickly & get rest?^121But there was to be no quick end to the suffrage struggle for the weary
Emmeline, nor any rest from her family responsibilities. On 1 January 1911, she
wrote to Una Dugdale from the Crown Hotel, Lyndhurst, in the New Forest,
where she was staying for a few days with Mabel Tuke and Emmeline Pethick
Lawrence, asking for any information that Una and her sister, Joan, might have
about Mary Clarke’s work in Brighton that could be used in the memorial
notice that Mrs. Lawrence was writing. Warmly, Emmeline thanked Una and
Joan for attending the funeral. ‘It was a great help to see your two dear faces on
Thursday.’^122 A few days later, she wrote to Elizabeth Robins, explaining that it
was ‘very hard to see my sister go that awfully sudden way. ... She was always
very good & loving to me & the children & I owe her much & now we can
never repay except by renewed devotion to the cause she loved.’^123 On 6
January, Emmeline accompanied Sylvia on the boat train to Southampton,
staying on board to the last moment, smiling at her ‘wistfully from the quay’.^124
She then returned to London to ponder again on the ‘problem’ of Adela.
PERSONAL SORROW AND FORTITUDE