also bought her a country cottage at Hook Heath, near Woking.^16 Aileen
Preston’s family were horrified when they heard about her new job with ‘that
dreadful woman’; they thought she was going ‘straight into the dark arms of
Hell’.^17 But Aileen loved the work, for which she was paid £1 a week. Since
Emmeline was travelling so much in the car, she used it to carry not only her
luggage but also WSPU literature and other material that might form the basis
for a speech, as her chauffeur explained:
We were very, very heavily laden with an enormous amount of litera-
ture piled on the top which I had to reach by climbing up a little
ladder.
We would start off about half past ten in the morning and then we’d
have a puncture. Mrs. Pankhurst never got out of the car, she never
moved from her papers, so I used to jack her up with the car. I took
that for granted. She was always absolutely absorbed in working out
her speech for the next meeting or reading some book on social
welfare. In my mind all the time was, ‘Mrs. Pankhurst’s got to be there.’
That’s all that mattered. Her meeting was the only thing that
mattered, and we always got there in time.^18While thus being transported from one by-election to another, Emmeline
continued to offer support and advice to WSPU members, especially the organ-
isers. ‘I think when you go to Gloucester you will find the Sec of the old society
there quite friendly & willing to make Mrs Lawrence’s meeting a success’, she
advised Ada Flatman, the WSPU Organiser for the county of Gloucestershire,
in mid February. ‘I think Lady Maude Percy would if invited take the Chair. ...
Congratulations on last night. It was a fine meeting & meant much hard
work.’^19 In Wiltshire, where a by-election was being held at Westbury,
Emmeline spoke at a number of different meetings, some of them women-only,
and met up with Christabel, Emmeline Pethick Lawrence and Annie Kenney.
Shortly afterwards, she made a surprise appearance at the Portman Rooms,
London, where the Hon. Evelina Haverfield had organised an entertainments
evening by the Actresses’ Franchise League.^20 Then Emmeline was off
campaigning in places as far afield as Portsmouth, Peterborough, Edinburgh,
Glasgow and Ayr.^21 In view of her hectic schedule, it is hardly surprising that
she did not feel well enough to undertake yet another planned tour;
campaigning was taking its toll on her health. The protective and concerned
Christabel, who was no longer living with the Pethick Lawrences but had
moved into a nearby flat, asked Lady Constance Lytton to take her mother’s
place, which she gladly agreed to do. ‘Thousands of thanks for taking it but it
has been a blessing’, wrote a grateful Christabel. ‘Mother was really not fit to do
the meetings & then go through her personal share in the protest. ... The little
time of quiet has done her so much good. You must take care of your precious
self now.’^22
THE TRUCE RENEWED