Goodbye Piccadilly 2 (Pages 43 - 99)

 SPOILERS!!!

Charles invites Diana to have a picnic with him and some of his acquaintances who will act as chaperones. When the day arrives and Diana meets the others, she feels they are out of their league and they make sure she knows that she is not one of them. Charles, who is known to be shy and aloof, asks her to walk with him near the river, and the conversation does not flow easily, and Charles ends up talking about fish and the land. When at the end of the day they say goodbye, Charles does not have the chance to say that he wants to see her again.

Some days later his father confronts him about marrying the woman he wants him to wed, but Charles says that he can't marry someone she doesn't like. However, he cannot say anything about Diana. There are rumours that there may be a Civil War in Ireland, which means that he may have to go there as they have a property in Ireland. 

We get to know Edward's sister, Laura. She is single and an unconventional woman. When she decided to study clerical skills, Edward thought it was just a way to kill her time. Yet, she found a job, which Edward disapproved of. Now Laura has lost her job as her boss is experiencing financial problems. That is why she decides to go to a convention of the suffragettes. She has no intention to engage in violent protests, but she believes in teh cause. In the meeting she meets Louisa Cotton, and both of them manage to run from the place when the police raid the place. Laura and Louisa hit it off, and they find they have interests in common.

I like the character of Beattie Hunter very much. She has moments in which she reflects how she feels as a woman. It is a disappointment how her aim in life is just being a wife and a mother, and it is so unfair. Mrs FItzgerald, the rector's wife, comes to talk to Beattie, saying that one of her maids, Ethel, was seen with Billy Snow, a shop assistant at the grocer's, and they were kissing and cuddling, and Mrs Fitzgerald thinks that Beattie needs to let Ethel go. Beattie hates being told what to do, and she simply says that she will talk to Ethel, especially as she would hate if Ethel found herself in trouble.