‘But not many are,’ and with a glance at the girl’s profile Dinny added: ‘You’re lucky, yourself.’
The girl bridled.
‘I told Mr Cherrell I’d like to be a mannykin, but he didn’t seem to fall for it.’
‘I’m afraid I think that of all inane pursuits that’s the worst. Dressing up for a lot of disgruntled women!’
‘Someone’s got to do it,’ said the girl, defiantly; ‘I like wearing clothes meself. But you need interest to get a thing like that. Perhaps Mrs Mont’ll speak for me. My! Wouldn’t you make a mannykin, with your style, Miss, and slim.’
Dinny laughed. The ’bus had halted at the Westminster end of Whitehall.
‘We get off here. Ever been in Westminster Abbey?’
‘No.’
‘Perhaps you’d like a look before they pull it down and put up flats or a Cinema.’
‘Are they reely goin’ to?’
‘I fancy it’s only in the back of their minds so far. At present they talk about restoring it.’
‘It’s a big place,’ said the girl, but under the walls a silence fell on her, which remained unbroken when they passed within. Dinny watched her, as with chin uplifted she contemplated the statue to Chatham and its neighbour.
‘Who’s the old beaver with no clothes on?’
‘Neptune. He’s a symbol. Britannia rules the waves, you know.’
‘Oh!’ And they moved on till the full proportions of the old Museum were better disclosed.
‘My! Isn’t it full of things?’
‘It is rather an Old Curiosity Shop. They’ve got all English history here, you know.’
‘It’s awful dark. The pillars look dirty, don’t they?’
‘Shall we just have a look at the Poets’ Corner?’ said Dinny.
‘What’s that?’
‘Where they bury great writers.’
‘Because they wrote rhymes?’ said the girl. ‘Isn’t that funny?’
Dinny did not answer. She knew some of the rhymes and was uncertain. Having scrutinized a number of effigies and names which had for her a certain limited interest, and for the girl apparently none, they moved slowly down the aisle to where between two red wreaths lay the black and gold tablet to the Unknown Warrior.
‘I wonder whether ’e knows,’ said the girl, ‘but I shouldn’t think ’e cares, anyway; nobody knows ’is name, so ’e gets nothin’ out of it.’
‘No. It’s we who get something out of it,’ said Dinny, feeling the sensation in her throat with which the world rewards the Unknown Warrior.
Out in the street again the girl asked suddenly:
‘Are you religious, Miss?’
‘In a sort of way, I think,’ said Dinny, doubtingly.
‘I never was taught any – Dad and Mother liked Mr Cherrell, but they thought it was a mistake; my Dad was a Socialist, you see, and he used to say religion was part of the capitalist system. Of course we don’t go to Church, in our class. We haven’t time, for one thing. You’ve got to keep so still in Church, too. I must say I like more movement. And then, if there’s a God, why is he called He? It puts me against Him, I know. Callin’ God He gets girls treated as they are, I think. Since my case I’ve thought about that a good deal after what the Court missionary said. A he can’t get on with creation without a she, anyway.’
Dinny stared.
‘You should have said that to my uncle. It’s quite a thought.’
‘They say women are the equal of men now,’ the girl went on, ‘but they aren’t, you know. There wasn’t a girl at my place that wasn’t scared of the boss. Where the money is, there’s the power. And all the magistrates and judges and clergy are he’s, and all the generals. They’ve got the whip, you see, and yet they can’t do nothin’ without us; and if I was Woman as a whole, I’d show ’em.’
Dinny was silent. This girl was bitter from her experience, no doubt, but there was truth behind what she was saying. The Creator was bi-sexual, or the whole process would have ended at the start. In that was a primal equality, which she had never before quite realized. If the girl had been of her own order she would have answered, but it was impossible to be unreserved with her; and feeling herself snobbish, she fell back on irony.
‘Some rebel! – as the Americans would say!’
‘Of course I’m a rebel,’ said the girl, ‘after that.’
‘Well, here we are at Mrs Mont’s. I’ve got one or two things to see to, so I’ll leave you with her. I hope we shall meet again.’ She held out her hand, the girl took it and said simply: ‘I’ve enjoyed it.’