"Then what about _their_ wives and children? If you cut down the wages the husbands earn won't it come pretty hard on them? It seems unfair that the factory women--who are most of them, I suppose, unmarried--should take the bread out of the mouths of their married sisters--and the children." Somerfield looked annoyed. "Oh, I don't say that would happen exactly. There are other ways ... But what we want is to see women get decent wages, full value for their work. The employers will have to come forward. If we make a strong stand they're bound to give way..." "Strikes?" Jill raised her eyebrows. "I thought they ruined the nation's trade? And that women always suffered more--the wives and mothers in these times. Besides..." relentlessly she pursued her way with a child's honest search for knowledge. "I don't really understand ... But, supposing that wages all round are raised, well then the employers--to make a profit--will have to sell at a higher cost. And won't that make living dearer?--in case of food and necessities?" "Not in the end. You ought to study Political Economy. I doubt if it much affects the class we're working for at any rate. It may hit ours!" He smiled sadly with an air of secret martyrdom--"And the rich too, I sincerely hope!" "But if you keep on 'hitting the rich'"--Jill adopted his expression--"and the large class of employers--won't they some day have to retrench? And doesn't that mean cutting down employment in every grade--for women too?" "More likely smaller dividends!" Somerfield sneered. "These syndicates and capitalists are the curse of England"--his voice rose--"that's where the people's money goes--back to the pockets of the rich!" "But aren't there a lot of decent people, middle-class and rather poor, investors too, dependent on dividends? Oh, I can't understand it all!--It seems to me whatever you do to alter the distribution of wealth you ruin some one--and always, _always_ it pans out harder for those who work!" "We're not talking of Socialism," Somerfield hastily interposed--"we're discussing the need for the Vote--for women to have a hand in the Government. To see that their own sex don't suffer--to put down all sorts of wrongs that have lingered on from feudal days when women were nothing more than slaves!" "It sounds glorious." Jill was moved, but the doubt still haunted her. "If only one could pick the women. They're such a lot of us, you see--and--really--some are awful fools!" "And what about the present Government? And the next too, if it comes to that! D'you think their brains are above suspicion?" He gave her a mocking glance. "No." Jill nodded her head. "But allowing that they're rather stupid, do you want to add to the general confusion by pairing them with the other sex--an equal number of ignorant women?" "Oh! you're _hopeless_!" He got up and poured himself out another glass from the port decanter on the sideboard. "I thought you really wanted to learn?"