Lady John shook her head.
'Yes, wot 'ave women ever done?'
The speaker had clenched her hands, but she was not going to lose her presence of mind again. By the time the chairman could make himself heard with, 'Now, men, it's one of our British characteristics that we're always ready to give the people we differ from a hearing,' Miss Levering, making the slightest of gestures, waved him aside with a low—
'It's all right.'
'These questions are quite proper,' she said, raising her voice. 'They are often asked elsewhere; and I would like to ask in return: Since when was human society held to exist for its handful of geniuses? How many Platos are there here in this crowd?'
'Divil a wan!' And a roar of laughter followed that free confession.
'Not one,' she repeated. 'Yet that doesn't keep you men off the register. How many Shakespeares are there in all England to-day? Not one. Yet the State doesn't tumble to pieces. Railroads and ships are built, homes are kept going, and babies are born. The world goes on'—she bent over the crowd with lit eyes—'the world goes on by virtue of its common people.'
There was a subdued 'Hear! hear!'
'I am not concerned that you should think we women could paint great pictures, or compose immortal music, or write good books. I am content'—and it was strange to see the pride with which she said it, a pride that might have humbled Vere de Vere—'I am content that we should be classed with the common people, who keep the world going. But'—her face grew softer, there was even a kind of camaraderie where before there had been shrinking—'I'd like the world to go a great deal better. We were talking about justice. I have been inquiring into the kind of lodging the poorest class of homeless women can get in this town of London. I find that only the men of that class are provided for. Some measure to establish Rowton Houses for Women has been before the London County Council. They looked into the question very carefully—so their apologists say. And what did they decide? They decided that they could do nothing.
'Why could that great, all-powerful body do nothing? Because, they said, if these cheap and decent houses were opened, the homeless women in the streets would make use of them. You'll think I'm not in earnest, but that was actually the decision, and the reason given for it. Women that the bitter struggle for existence had forced into a life of horror might take advantage of the shelter these decent, cheap places offered. But the men, I said! Are the men who avail themselves of Lord Rowton's hostels, are they all angels? Or does wrong-doing in a man not matter? Yet women are recommended to depend on the chivalry of men!'