'And fighting isn't everything,' Miss Simon went on, 'and war time isn't everything. There's women's work in peace time. What about Octavia Wills that did so much for housing? Wasn't she helping her country? And, for war work, what price Florence Nightingale? What would the country have done without her, and what did she get out of all she did?'
Mrs. Frampton, who had not read the life of that strong-minded person, but cherished a mid-Victorian vision of a lady with a lamp, sounder in the heart than in the head, said, 'She kept her place as a woman, Miss Simon.'
Evie, who was not listening much, finding the subject tedious, put in vaguely, 'After all, when it comes to fighting, we are left in the lurch, aren't we?'
Sid said, 'Oh dear no, Miss Evie. What price Christabel and Co.? They ought to have had the iron cross all round, the militants ought. They did more to earn it than the Huns ever did.'
'Cheap sarcasm,' said Miss Simon, 'is no argument. And I don't blame any woman for using what means she's got. There are times when a woman's got to forget herself.'
Kate said, 'I don't think a woman's ever got to forget herself,' and there was a murmur of applause. Alix giggled. She wondered if social evenings at Violette were often like this.
'You don't understand,' said the round-faced girl helplessly. 'You may be all right, in your station of life, but you've got to look at other women's—the poor. We've got to do something about the poor. The vote would help us.'
'There have always,' said Mrs. Frampton, 'been the poor, and there always will be.'
'That's just why,' suggested Alix, momentarily joining in, 'it might be worth while to do something about them.' Miss Simon looked at her in sudden gratitude; she had a misplaced and soon-quenched hope that this seemingly indifferent and amused girl might prove an ally.
Kate said, placidly, 'Well, they say that if you were to take a lot of men and women and give them all the same money, they'd all be quite different again to-morrow....'