[_Troubled but determined._] Can’t we put something in its place, so they won’t be too desolate and yet we won’t be so-- SCORNFUL ONE Bored. MOTHERLY ONE If we could only get them noble about something else. I should really hate to take it from them entirely. It’s like giving up smoking or drinking. You have to do it gradually, and there should be something to put in its place. SCORNFUL ONE If we could only think up a new vice for them. MOTHERLY ONE They have all those. SHIELDED ONE Oh, I hope you women can work out some way to free us from men’s noble feelings about it! I speak for all the women of my--[_Hesitates_] under-world, all those others smothered under men’s lofty sentiments toward them! I wish I could paint for you the horrors of the shielded life. [_Says “shielded” as if it were “shameful.”_] I know you would feel something must be done to save us. After all [_Growing a little wild_] are we not your sisters? Our honor has been saved so many times. We are tired. And so when I read in the paper this morning that woman’s honor was being saved _again_-- SCORNFUL ONE [_Excitedly going to her._] Read in the paper? Then you’re _not_--the one? SHIELDED ONE Not that one, but-- [_Slowly the door opens and a woman comes in--comes with a strange quiet. She droops, she has a queer passivity--she is unaccountably forceful. Gives a sense of one who has been cheated and is going to be cheated no more. She is scarcely aware of the other women. Her eyes, dead, or rather dogged with life, go to the unfortunate young man. He has turned to look at her; he is not able to look away._ SCORNFUL ONE [_Nervously._] Are you a stenographer? CHEATED ONE [_Not interested in this._] No. [_In her dogged way she advances upon the PRISONER. He is afraid. She sits down close to him, as if to cut off escape._ MOTHERLY ONE [_Low._] I wonder if _she_ is here. SCORNFUL ONE I wonder. SHIELDED ONE [_With an effort bringing herself and the others back to her._] But don’t turn against me because I’m not this particular woman. What a _detail_ that is. I am--those victims of men’s dreadful--[_Turns away her face_] _need_ for nobility. I’d rather die than go back to it! Help me to lead another life! SCORNFUL ONE [_Fervently._] We must lift her up. MOTHERLY ONE We will find a place for her in the great good world outside the shielded life. SHIELDED ONE Then you others go, and I will stay. [_MOTHERLY ONE and SCORNFUL ONE rise and move to the door._ SILLY ONE I will give my life for yours, my sister! SCORNFUL ONE No you won’t. I’ll have nothing to do with saving you. You deserve nothing better than woman’s honor. Come with us. [_But at the door these three stand looking back at the CHEATED ONE._ SCORNFUL ONE [_Moving down to her._] Aren’t you coming with us? CHEATED ONE [_Without raising her eyes._] No. SCORNFUL ONE Why not? CHEATED ONE I shall stay. MOTHERLY ONE