MRS. BANGER. That does not concern us in the least. We approve of the project and will see that it is carried out. We have spent a good deal of money arming ourselves; and we are not going to have that money thrown away through the pusillanimity of a Cabinet of males. MITCHENER. Arming yourselves! But, my dear ladies, under the latest proclamation women are strictly forbidden to carry chains, padlocks, tracts on the franchise, or weapons of any description. LADY CORINTHIA (producing an ivory-handled revolver and pointing it at his nose). You little know your countrywomen, General Mitchener. MITCHENER (without flinching). Madam: it is my duty to take possession of that weapon in accordance with the proclamation. Be good enough to put it down. MRS. BANGER (producing an XVIII century horse pistol). Is it your duty to take possession of this also? MITCHENER. That, madam, is not a weapon; it is a curiosity. If you would be kind enough to place it in some museum instead of pointing it at my head, I should be obliged to you. MRS. BANGER. This pistol, sir, was carried at Waterloo by my grandmother. MITCHENER. I presume you mean your grandfather. MRS. BANGER. You presume unwarrantably. LADY CORINTHIA. Mrs. Banger's grandmother commanded a canteen at that celebrated battle. MRS. BANGER. Who my grandfather was is a point that has never been quite clearly settled. I put my trust not in my ancestors, but in my good sword, which is at my lodgings. MITCHENER. Your sword! MRS. BANGER. The sword with which I slew five Egyptians with my own hand at Kassassin, where I served as a trooper. MITCHENER. Lord bless me! But was your sex never discovered? MRS. BANGER. It was never even suspected. I had a comrade--a gentleman ranker--whom they called Fanny. They never called ME Fanny. LADY CORINTHIA. The suffragets have turned the whole woman movement on to the wrong track. They ask for a vote. MRS. BANGER. What use is a vote? Men have the vote. LADY CORINTHIA. And men are slaves. MRS. BANGER. What women need is the right to military service. Give me a well-mounted regiment of women with sabres, opposed to a regiment of men with votes. We shall see which will go down before the other. (rises) No: we have had enough of these gentle pretty creatures who merely talk and cross-examine ministers in police courts, and go to prison like sheep, and suffer and sacrifice themselves. This question must be solved by blood and iron, as was well said by Bismarck, whom I have reason to believe was a woman in disguise. MITCHENER. Bismarck a woman? MRS. BANGER. All the really strong men of history have been disguised women. MITCHENER (remonstrating). My dear lady! MRS. BANGER. How can you tell? You never knew that the hero of the charge at Kassassin was a woman: yet she was: it was I, Rosa Carmina Banger. Would Napoleon have been so brutal to women, think you, had he been a man?