Women for votes

by Elizabeth Hughes

MR. MELVIN. (Looking up at the painting.) Is that your mother’s portrait?

MILDRED. Yes, how did you know it? Everyone says I don’t look a bit like her.

MR. MELVIN. Your smile is the same.

MILDRED. I wish the portrait were mine.

MR. MELVIN. Isn’t it?

MILDRED. No. My mother willed it to my father. She left everything else to me, but I would rather have had the portrait and not so much money.

MR. MELVIN. Do you remember your mother?

MILDRED. Yes. She only died six years ago. I often come down here in the evenings when my father and stepmother are out and curl up in that corner of the sofa and try to recall what she said to me when I was a little girl and to imagine how she would advise me now, when I am puzzled what to do.

MR. MELVIN. Was she a supporter of votes for women too?