CHAPTER III
BATTLE, ZEPPELINS, AND DEMOCRACY
AS far from the front as London it became obvious that the nearer one approaches this war the nearer one visualises a vivid growth of democracy. A number of incidents, at the time apparently trivial, assume in retrospect a very real importance.
I had been interested in the women's share. I had visited hospitals, watching the nurses at their merciful work. I had seen them, with an amusing diffidence, accomplishing men's tasks on trams and busses, even at the wheels of taxicabs. I knew of their labour in the munition factories. I was not prepared, however, for the surprise an English friend offered me when I went to visit him at his home in Surrey. He was a man of wealth and influence.
I was curious when his daughter didn't appear for luncheon.
"I'll show you this afternoon what she's at," he promised mysteriously.
He wouldn't say anything else.
We set off in his automobile, stopping at a
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