ANNYS. (_She looks at him_.) You mean—an ownership. GEOFFREY. Perhaps you’re right. I didn’t make it. I’m only—beginning to understand it. ANNYS. And I too. It is not what I want. GEOFFREY. You mean its duties have become irksome to you. ANNYS. I mean I want to be the judge myself of what are my duties. GEOFFREY. I no longer count. You will go your way without me? ANNYS. I must go the way I think right. GEOFFREY. (_He flings away_.) If you win to-night you will do well to make the most of it. Take my advice and claim the seat. ANNYS. (_Looks at him puzzled_.) ELIZABETH. Why? GEOFFREY. Because (_with a short_, _ugly laugh_) the Lord only knows when you’ll get another opportunity. ELIZABETH. You are going to stop us? GEOFFREY. To stop women from going to the poll. The Bill will be introduced on Monday. Carried through all its stages the same week. ELIZABETH. You think it will pass? GEOFFREY. The Whips assure me that it will. ANNYS. But they cannot, they dare not, without your assent. The— (_The light breaks in upon her_.) Who is bringing it in? GEOFFREY. I am. ANNYS. (_Is going to speak_.) GEOFFREY. (_He stops her_.) Oh, I’m prepared for all that—ridicule, abuse. “Chilvers’s Bill for the Better Regulation of Mrs. Chilvers,” they’ll call it. I can hear their laughter. Yours won’t be among it. ANNYS. But, Geoffrey! What is the meaning? Merely to spite me, are you going to betray a cause that you have professed belief in—that you have fought for? GEOFFREY. Yes—if it is going to take you away from me. I want you. No, I don’t want a friend—“a fellow-worker”—some interesting rival in well doing. I can get all that outside my home. I want a wife. I want the woman I love to belong to me—to be mine. I am not troubling about being up to date; I’m talking what I feel—what every male creature must have felt since the protoplasmic cell developed instincts. I want a woman to love—a woman to work for—a woman to fight for—a woman to be a slave to. But mine—mine, and nothing else. All the rest (_he makes a gesture_) is talk. (_He closes the window_, _shutting out the hubbub of the crowd_.) ANNYS. (_A strange_, _new light has stolen in_. _She is bewildered_, _groping_.) But—all this is new between us. You have not talked like this for—not since— We were just good friends—comrades.