I sat on her bed and looked at her in the dim light, wondering what other secrets she was keeping from me, and how to tell her what I must tell her. When we got home I took a candle from the hall table and went directly up to Maude's room. I was remembering when my own courses began - how I had run to my mother, crying, and how she had comforted me. I should have guessed then how deeply you were into this ridiculous nonsense.' Richard could have said more, but must have sensed he didn't need to. She had to go to Jenny in the end - you weren't home. 'When?' 'Months ago.' 'How can you know when I don't?' 'I was with her at the time, that's why! And a humiliating moment it was, for both of us. 'What do you mean?' Richard stared at me, both incredulous and embarrassed. 'Now that she's firmly on the road to womanhood, she needs a better example than you are setting.' I frowned - the phrase he used was so awkward it must be masking something. One thing he said in the cab did surprise me. It is only now he truly understands that I too am a suffragette. He has thought my activities with the WSPU a harmless hobby, to be dabbled in between tea parties. Indeed, I have been lucky to go this long without Richard complaining.

All of this I had known to expect, from hearing of the reactions of other women' s husbands. He shouted about the family name, about the disgrace to his mother, about the uselessness of the cause. Richard' s response was predictable - a rage he contained in front of the police but unleashed in the cab home. To my surprise, it was harder facing Maude than Richard.

Falling angels tracy chevalier summary