No, I live in Sussex now, but I’ve come up today to visit. It was an occasion for Dad, you know. He tells the stories as though we remember it all, but my brother and I don’t remember any of it, and my sister was a babe in arms. I do remember his campaigning for the library, later on. Now that was a useful thing. But my nephews use the lands for their sport and games, so Dad has seen his grandchildren benefit. And the people round about, of course.

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Somebody suggested to me the other day that the Boy Scouts—

Terrible pseudo-military organization. Filling young heads with dangerous nonsense.

Yes, but hear me out, Ambrose. This lady suggested that the Boy Scouts might fetch and deliver books from the public library to the bedridden. It’s quite a good suggestion, I think. If they can’t come to the library, then the library shall come to them.

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I felt very important, carrying the slip to the ballot box.

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I don’t know that it was worth all Dad put into it, to tell you the truth. All those years of letters and protests. He could have done something for himself instead – for us – in the time it took. Mum would have preferred that, I think. I would have preferred it.

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I think the money will be in talkies, in the future. Think of the possibilities.

Think of the propaganda!

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But there weren’t the opportunities then, for a man of his class. Still aren’t, are there? Or he’d have been a solicitor, not a solicitor’s clerk.

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I’m talking about Utopia!

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Do you like going to the pictures, Aggie?

I do, but my sisters don’t, not much, and my friend that I work with can’t afford it much. I’d go more often if I had someone else to go with.

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Mother was a suffragist, and I did what I could, when I could spare the time from raising my children – they’re nearly grown now. It is nice to see it come right in the end. Mother didn’t live to see that.

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There’s no secret to the law, no mystery. All it is, is writing things down that have been agreed upon. And then knowing where to look them up later – that’s important. And applying the rules. That’s all it is. I did most of the solicitors’ work for them, and I was in court every week. That’s why I had no fear of the courts.

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Of course he gets a small stipend now, as a councillor. Should have been a Member of Parliament, not a councillor.

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I have a volume of Tacitus at home, Mrs Hagger, with the translation on alternate pages. Your son is welcome to it. No, not at all, I never open it. Tell me your address.

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