Mrs. Akers: Call a spade a spade. Is it the usual thing?
Mrs. Lloyd-Evans: I should be sorry to call it the usual thing. But I’m afraid that’s what it is.
Mrs. Akers: I’ve worked in a district, and my husband has a large medical practice amongst poor people. I suppose some girl has got into trouble?
(Mrs. Lloyd-Evans bows her head in assent, and once more all three ladies draw their chairs closer together. Miss Miller covers her face with her hands for a moment.) From now onwards, the three ladies are all much more animated, and full of barely-disguised enjoyment of a subject which they all regard as a delicate one.
Mrs. Ballantyne: We’re all married women here, and I think we can discuss this better without Miss Miller.
Miss Miller (quickly, and with suppressed agitation): If it’s a formal meeting, you’ll want the minutes entered.
Mrs. Akers: Yes. She’d better stay.
Mrs. Ballantyne (aside to Mrs. Akers): I don’t agree. I’m the mother of a girl myself, as you know, and to me girlhood is sacred. We have a most painful subject to discuss.
Miss Miller: Please let me stay. I—I might help.
Mrs. Lloyd-Evans: How could you help, Miss Miller? And even if you could, it would be most unsuitable in an unmarried girl like yourself. Please wait in the next room until we call you to take down the results of the conference.