Elizabeth Robins

“ One woman's mishap?—what is that? A thing as trivial to the great world as it's sordid in most eyes. But the time has come when a woman may look about her, and say, "What general significance has my secret pain? Does it 'join on' to anything?" And I find it does. I'm no longer merely a woman who has stumbled on the way. I'm one (she controls with difficulty the shake in her voice) who has got up bruised and bleeding, wiped the dust from her hands and the tears from her face, and said to herself not merely, "Here's one luckless woman! ”

“ The thing I'm fighting is nothing more than one person's hold on a highly sensitive imagination. I consented to this interview with the hope—— (A gesture of impotence.) It only remains for me to show her your true motive is revenge.
Miss L. Once say that to her and you are lost!
(Stonor motionless; his look is the look of a man who sees happiness slipping away.)
Miss L. I know what it is that men fear. It even seems as if it must be through fear that your enlightenment will come. That is why I see a value in Jean Dunbarton far beyond her fortune. ”

“ I protest! Good Lord! what are the women of this country coming to? I protest against Miss Levering being carried off to discuss anything so revolting. Bless my soul! what can a woman like you know about it? ”

“ You teach us not to look to you for some of the things we need most. If women must be freed by women, we have need of such as— (her eyes go to Jean's door) —who knows? She may be the new Joan of Arc.
Stonor (aghast) . That she should be the sacrifice!
Miss L. You have taught us to look very calmly on the sacrifice of women. Men tell us in every tongue it's "a necessary evil."
(Stonor stands rooted, staring at the ground.)
Miss L. One girl's happiness—against a thing nobler than happiness for thousands—who can hesitate?—Not Jean. ”

“ Allen Trent is a tall, slim, brown-haired man of twenty-eight, with a slight stoop, an agreeable aspect, well-bred voice, and the gleaming brown eye of the visionary. Behind these two, looking on or talking among themselves, are several other carelessly dressed women; one, better turned out than the rest, is quite young, very slight and gracefully built, with round, very pink cheeks, full, scarlet lips, naturally waving brown hair, and an air of childish gravity. ”

“ I've come to a place where I realise that the first battles of this new campaign must be fought by women alone. The only effective help men could give—amendment of the law—they refuse. The rest is nothing.
Lady John. Don't be ungrateful, Vida. ”

“ Miss L. No. Believe me. The mistake was in letting women learn to talk.
Great. Ah! (Wheels about with sudden rapture.) I see now what's to be the next great reform.
Miss L. (holding up the little volume) . When women are all dumb, no more discussions of the "Paradiso."
Great. (with a gesture of mock rapture) . The thing itself! (Aside.) That's a great deal better than talking about it, as I'm sure you know.
Miss L. Why do you think I know?
Great. Only the plain women are in any doubt.
(Jean joins Miss Levering.)
Great. Wait for me, Farnborough. I cannot go about unprotected. ”

“ Are all 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.
(The two policemen, who at first had been strolling about, have stood during this scene in front of Geoffrey Stonor. They turn now and walk away, leaving Stonor exposed. He, embarrassed, moves uneasily, and Vida Levering's eye falls upon his big figure. He still has the collar of his motor coat turned up to his ears. A change passes over her face, and her nerve fails her an instant.) ”

“ Stonor (picks up the telegram and a handkerchief lying near, glances at the message) . Why, it's only an invitation to dine—Wednesday!
Jean. Sh! (Takes the telegram and puts it in her pocket.)
Stonor. Oh, I see! (Lower, smiling.) It's rather dear of you to arrange our going off like that. You are a clever little girl!
Jean. It's not that I was arranging. I want to hear those women in Trafalgar Square—the Suffragettes.
Stonor (incredulous, but smiling) . How perfectly absurd! (Looking after Lady John.) Besides, I expect she wouldn't like my carrying you off like that. ”

“ Miss L. Men are ready! What men?
Stonor (avoiding her eyes, picking his words) . Women have themselves to blame that the question has grown so delicate that responsible people shrink—for the moment—from being implicated in it.
Miss L. We have seen the "shrinking."
Stonor. Without quoting any one else, I might point out that the New Antagonism seems to have blinded you to the small fact that I, for one, am not an opponent. ”

“ You can't any longer keep women out of the industries. The only question is upon what terms shall she continue to be in? As long as she's in on bad terms, she's not only hurting herself—she's hurting you. ”

“ Lady John. Yes, for then I would be more certain of your telling Geoffrey Stonor that intelligent women don't nurse their wrongs and lie in wait to punish them.
Miss L. You are not certain?
Lady John (goes close up to Vida) . Are you?
(Vida stands with her eyes on the ground, silent, motionless. Lady John, with a nervous glance at her watch and a gesture of extreme perturbation, goes hurriedly out. Vida shuts the door. She comes slowly back, sits down and covers her face with her hands. She rises and begins to walk up and down, obviously trying to master her agitation. Enter Geoffrey Stonor.) ”

“ Lady John (turning and seeing Jean. Rising hastily) . If it's here, it is the fault of those women agitators.
Miss L. (gently) . No woman begins that way. (Leans forward with clasped hands looking into vacancy.) Every woman's in a state of natural subjection (smiles at Jean) —no, I'd rather say allegiance to her idea of romance and her hope of motherhood. They're embodied for her in man. They're the strongest things in life—till man kills them. ”

“ Well, you know, some people say the whole trouble about us is that we do fight. But it is only hard necessity makes us do that. We don't want to fight—as men seem to—just for fighting's sake. Women are for peace. ”

“ Stonor. I do. I see you'd much rather punish me and see her revel in a morbid self-sacrifice.
Miss L. You say I want to punish you only because, like most men, you won't take the trouble to understand what we do want—or how determined we are to have it. You can't kill this new spirit among women. (Going nearer.) And you couldn't make a greater mistake than to think it finds a home only in the exceptional, or the unhappy. It's so strange,111 Geoffrey, to see a man like you as much deluded as the Hyde Park loafers who say to Ernestine Blunt, "Who's hurt your feelings?" ”

“ Miss L. Lady John, this is one of our allies. He is good enough to squire me through the rabble from time to time.
Lady John. Well, I think it's very handsome of you, after what she said to-day about men. (Shakes hands.)
Trent. I've no great opinion of most men myself. I might add—or of most women.
Lady John. Oh! Well, at any rate I shall go away relieved to think that Miss Levering's plain speaking hasn't alienated all masculine regard. ”

“ It must have pleased Jean—that message. (Offers him back the paper.)
(Stonor astonished at her yielding it up so lightly, and remembering Jean had not so much as read it. He throws himself heavily into a chair and drops his head in his hands.)
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Miss L. I could drive a hard-and-fast bargain with you, but I think I won't. If both love and ambition urge you on, perhaps—— (She gazes at the slack, hopeless figure with its sudden look of age—goes over silently and stands by his side.) After all, life hasn't been quite fair to you——
(He raises his heavy eyes.) ”

“ Miss L. The girls who need shelter and work aren't all serving-maids.
Mrs. H. (with an involuntary flash) . We know that all the women who—make mistakes aren't.
Miss L. (steadily) . That is why every woman ought to take an interest in this—every girl too.
Jean Lady John } (simultaneously) { Yes—oh,yes! No. This is a matter for us older——
Mrs. H. (with an air of sly challenge) . Or for a person who has some special knowledge. (Significantly.) We can't pretend to have access to such sources of information as Miss Levering. ”

“ In the case of this poor little abandoned working girl, what man can be the fit judge of her deeds in that awful moment of half-crazed temptation? Women know of these things as those know burning who have walked through fire. ”

“ I found there were pleasant parks, museums, free libraries in our great rich London—and not one single place where destitute women can be sure of work that isn't killing or food that isn't worse than prison fare. ”

“ Yes, that's almost the first thing we have to learn—to get over our touching faith that, because a man tells us something, it's true. I got to the right court, and I was so anxious not to be late, I was too early. The case before the Women's was just coming on. I heard a noise. At the door I saw the helmets of two policemen, and I said to myself: "What sort of crime shall I have to sit and hear about? Is this a burglar coming along between the two big policemen, or will it be a murderer? What sort of felon is to stand in the dock before the women whose crime is they ask for the vote?" ”

“ Does the Government want to punish all women because they don't like the manners of a handful? Perhaps that's you men's notion of justice. It isn't women's.
Voices. Haw! haw!
Miss L. Yes. Th-this is the first time I've ever "gone on," as you call it, but they never gave me a vote.
Miss E. B. (with energy) . No! And there are one—two—three—four women on this platform. Now, we all want the vote, as you know. Well, we'd agree to be disfranchised all our lives, if they'd give the vote to all the other women.
Voice. Look here, you made one speech, give the lady a chawnce. ”

“ Stonor (speaking through Miss Levering's next words) . I don't know.
Miss L. Why could that great, all-powerful body do nothing? Because, if these cheap and decent houses were opened, they said, 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 has forced into a life of horror——
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Stonor (sternly to Lady John) . You think this is the kind of thing—— (A motion of the head towards Jean.) ”

“ But that's not to say women can't fight. The Boer women did. The Russian women face conflicts worse than any battlefield can show. (Her voice shakes a little, and the eyes fill, but she controls her emotion gallantly, and dashes on.) But we women know all that is evil, and we're for peace. ”

“ Because people like us don't go screaming about it, is no sign we don't (some of us) see what's on the way. However little they want to, women of our class will have to come into line. All the best things in the world—everything that civilisation has won will be in danger if—when this change comes—the only women who have practical political training are the women of the lower classes. Women of the lower classes, and (his brows knit heavily) —women inoculated by the Socialist virus.
Jean. Geoffrey.
Stonor (draws the telegraph form towards him) . ”

“ A quiet old man with a lot of unsold Sunday papers under one arm stands in an attitude of rapt attention, with the free hand round his deaf ear. A brisk-looking woman of forty-five or so, wearing pince-nez, goes round with a pile of propagandist literature on her arm. ”

“ A woman is arrested by a man, brought before a man judge, tried by a jury of men, condemned by men, taken to prison by a man, and by a man she's hanged! Where in all this were her "peers"? Why did men so long ago insist on trial by "a jury of their peers"? ”