Anthony Hope

“ Mrs. Knight went on, with a swing of her fan through the air. "You men don't know what the deadening weight of it is. It is we women who have to bear the burden of it. We are trammelled and tied at every step."
"It's a burning shame," said I. "Why do you stand it?"
"Well, I have lifted up my voice," said Mrs. Knight. "I have claimed the right for myself and my sisters to do what our feelings—our feelings, which are nature's guide—tell us; as I say in Lucifera, through my heroine's lips." ”

“ I asked, much interested.
"I mean the book had some effect."
"Oh, I beg your pardon—of course, of course."
"But we want something more."
"Yes, we do," said I.
"What precisely it is," said Mrs. Knight, knitting her arched brows, "I am not quite sure. What is the next thing to be done, Mr. Vansittart?"
"To put in action," said I, firmly and without a moment's hesitation, "the gospel which you have so nobly preached in Bluesifera.'
"Forgive me—Lucifera, Mr. Vansittart."
"Yes, yes—Lucifera, I said Lucifera didn't I? At any rate, I meant—I say, what are you getting up for, Mrs. Knight?" ”

“ But don't you think that perhaps we ought——"
"Ought!" I echoed, scornfully. "Where is the 'ought' when we neither of us want it?"
Mrs. Knight stood opposite me for a moment, her folded fan dangling from her hand. She smiled doubtfully at me. I rose to my feet—it is rude to sit while a lady stands—and took hold of the other end of the fan. The fan was quite a small one.
"What, under the circumstances," said I, reiterating the gist of my question "is the meaning of 'ought'?"
"Oh, the meaning of 'ought'?" murmured Mrs. Knight.
"What is my 'ought' and what is your 'ought'! What is it, I say? ”