ST. HERBERT. (_He refers again to his notes_.) A Returning Officer can only deal with objections arising out of the nomination paper. He has no jurisdiction to go behind a nomination paper and constitute himself a court of inquiry as to the fitness or unfitness of a candidate. PHOEBE. Good old House of Lords! (LADY MOGTON _hammers_.) ELIZABETH. But I thought it was part of the Returning Officer’s duty to inquire into objections, that a special time was appointed to deal with them. ST. HERBERT. He will still be required to take cognisance of any informality in the nomination paper or papers. Beyond that, this decision relieves him of all further responsibility. JANET. But this gives us everything. ST. HERBERT. It depends upon what you call everything. It gives a woman the right to go to the poll—a right which, as a matter of fact, she has always possessed. PHOEBE. Then why did the Returning Officer for Camberwell in 1885— ST. HERBERT. Because he did not know the law. And Miss Helen Taylor had not the means possessed by our friend McCaw to teach it to him. ANNYS. (_Rises_. _She goes to the centre of the room_.) LADY MOGTON. Where are you going? ANNYS. (_She turns_; _there are tears in her eyes_. _The question seems to recall her to herself_.) Nowhere. I am so sorry. I can’t help it. It seems to me to mean so much. It gives us the right to go before the people—to plead to them, not for ourselves, for them. (_Again she seems to lose consciousness of those at the table_, _of the room_.) To the men we will say: “Will you not trust us? Is it harm we have ever done you? Have we not suffered for you and with you? Were we not sent into the world to be your helpmeet? Are not the children ours as well as yours? Shall we not work together to shape the world where they must dwell? Is it only the mother-voice that shall not be heard in your councils? Is it only the mother-hand that shall not help to guide?” To the women we will say: “Tell them—tell them it is from no love of ourselves that we come from our sheltered homes into the street. It is to give, not to get—to mingle with the sterner judgments of men the deeper truths that God, through pain, has taught to women—to mingle with man’s justice woman’s pity, till there shall arise the perfect law—not made of man nor woman, but of both, each bringing what the other lacks.” And they will listen to us. Till now it has seemed to them that we were clamouring only for selfish ends. They have not understood. We shall speak to them of common purposes, use the language of fellow-citizens. They will see that we are worthy of the place we claim. They will welcome us as helpers in a common cause. They— (_She turns_—_the present comes back to her_.) LADY MOGTON. (_After a pause_.) The business (_she dwells severely on the word_) before the meeting—