In retrospect, I admit precipice might not have been quite the right word. The ladies of Women’s Liberal Federation, while charming and welcoming, weren’t as different from the rest of society as one might have thought. I’d expected—or perhaps hoped for—firebrand politics. Instead, we entered a pleasant drawing room papered in a William Morris design and found ourselves in a crush of violently fashionable ladies. Their sleeves, in every bright color of fabric, were so wide one could hardly squeeze past them. We drank tea and enjoyed genteel conversation that focused as much on needlepoint and which balls everyone planned to attend that evening as it did the issue of we ladies gaining the vote. It was pleasant, but a little anticlimactic.

“I confess I’d worried they would be more radical,” Ivy asked, her voice hushed as she scooted her chair closer to mine. The meeting had started in earnest, though many of the ladies weren’t paying much attention.

“I thought they would be, too,” I said, not voicing my disappointment to find they were not.

“Can you hear me, Lady Emily? I need to know if we can count on you.” Lady Carlisle’s voice carried over the group, and I felt like a child caught talking out of turn at school. “Will you distribute pamphlets with us?”

I had heard everything she’d said about these pamphlets, which the group planned to hand out to specially selected ladies in the most unobtrusive way possible so as not to put off any possible recruits.

“I should like very much to be in charge of handing them out to the Conservative MPs, if that would be allowed,” I said. “I’m not afraid of direct opposition.”

“Well, now,” Lady Carlisle said. “I do admire your determination.” Our hostess was well known for the fervent support she lent to her favorite causes: temperance, Irish Home Rule, and free trade. It was she who had directed the movement for the Women’s Liberal Federation to pursue an aggressive agenda to get votes for women, a policy that had caused a schism in the group. Nearly ten thousand members had resigned and started their own organization, the priorities of which did not include supporting such controversial stances.