St. Herbert. Because he did not know the law. And Miss Helen Taylor had not the means possessed by our friend McCaw to teach it to him.
Annys. (Rises. She goes to the centre of the room.)
Lady Mogton. Where are you going?
Annys. (She turns; there are tears in her eyes. The question seems to recall her to herself.) Nowhere. I am so sorry. I can’t help it. It seems to me to mean so much. It gives us the right to go before the people—to plead to them, not for ourselves, for them. (Again she seems to lose consciousness of those at the table, of the room.) To the men we will say: “Will you not trust us? Is it harm we have ever done you? Have we not suffered for you and with you? Were we not sent into the world to be your helpmeet? Are not the children ours as well as yours? Shall we not work together to shape the world where they must dwell? Is it only the mother-voice that shall not be heard in your councils? Is it only the mother-hand that shall not help to guide?” To the women we will say: “Tell them—tell them it is from no love of ourselves that we come from our sheltered homes into the street. It is to give, not to get—to mingle with the sterner judgments of men the deeper truths that God, through pain, has taught to women—to mingle with man’s justice woman’s pity, till there shall arise the perfect law—not made of man nor woman, but of both, each bringing what the other lacks.” And they will listen to us. Till now it has seemed to them that we were clamouring only for selfish ends. They have not understood. We shall speak to them of common purposes, use the language of fellow-citizens. They will see that we are worthy of the place we claim. They will welcome us as helpers in a common cause. They—
(She turns—the present comes back to her.)
Lady Mogton. (After a pause.) The business (she dwells severely on the word) before the meeting—
Annys. (She resents herself meekly. Apologising generally.) I must learn to control myself.
Lady Mogton. (Who has waited.) —is McCaw versus Potts. Its bearing upon the movement for the extension of the franchise to women. My own view I venture to submit in the form of a resolution. (She takes up a paper on which she has been writing.) As follows: That the Council of the Woman’s Parliamentary Franchise League, having regard to the decision of the House of Lords in McCaw v. Potts—
St. Herbert. (Looking over.) Two t’s.
Lady Mogton. —resolves to bring forward a woman candidate to contest the next bye-election. (Suddenly to Mrs. Mountcalm-Villiers, who is chattering.) Do you agree or disagree?