THE FOURTH ACT
The Scene is the same as in the first and second Acts, the drawing-room at Kenyon-Fulton.
Two days have elapsed. It is about twelve o’clock in the morning. Mrs. Insoley is seated with her dog on her lap, and Miss Hall is reading the leading article of the Times to her.
Miss Hall.
[Reading.] “ ... to whom it would give the suffrage are marked off from all citizens who have ever and anywhere enjoyed the franchise in great civil communities by physical differences which no legislation can affect. Women, they insist, pay rates and taxes as men do, and therefore, they argue, women ought to vote as men do. But rates and taxes may be imposed or abolished by legislation. Men may become ratepayers and taxpayers, or cease to be ratepayers and taxpayers. The one thing that no enthusiasm, no reasoning, no eloquence, demonstrations, or statutes can achieve is to make a woman a man.”
Mrs. Insoley.
Miss Hall.
I’ve always thought exactly the same myself, Mrs. Insoley.