MISS L. Do you picture the Suffragettes sitting in sackcloth? MRS. F. Well, they can't help realising _now_ what they've done. MISS L. (_quietly_). Isn't it just possible they realise they've waked up interest in the Woman Question so that it's advertised in every paper and discussed in every house from Land's End to John o'Groats? Don't you think _they_ know there's been more said and written about it in these ten days since the scene, than in the ten years before it? MRS. F. You aren't saying you think it was a good way to get what they wanted? MISS L. (_shrugs_). I'm only pointing out that it seems not such a bad way to get it known they _do_ want something--and (_smiling_) "want it bad." JEAN (_getting up_). Didn't Mr. Greatorex say women had been politely petitioning Parliament for forty years? MISS L. And men have only laughed. JEAN. But they'd come round. (_She looks from one to the other._) Mrs. Tunbridge says, before that horrid scene, everything was favourable at last. MISS L. At last? Hadn't it been just as "favourable" before? MRS. F. No. We'd never had so many members pledged to our side. MISS L. I thought I'd heard somebody say the Bill had got as far as that, time and time again. JEAN. Oh no. Surely not---- MRS. F. (_reluctantly_). Y-yes. This was only a Resolution. The Bill passed a second reading thirty-seven years ago. JEAN (_with wide eyes_). And what difference did it make? MISS L. The men laughed rather louder. MRS. F. Oh, it's got as far as a second reading several times--but we never had so many friends in the House before---- MISS L. (_with a faint smile_). "Friends!" JEAN. Why do you say it like that? MISS L. Perhaps because I was thinking of a funny story--he said it was funny--a Liberal Whip told me the other day. A Radical Member went out of the House after his speech in favour of the Woman's Bill, and as he came back half an hour later, he heard some Members talking in the Lobby about the astonishing number who were going to vote for the measure. And the Friend of Woman dropped his jaw and clutched the man next him: "My God!" he said, "you don't mean to say they're going to give it to them!" JEAN. Oh! MRS. F. You don't think all men in Parliament are like that! MISS L. I don't think all men are burglars, but I lock my doors. JEAN (_below her breath_). You think that night of the scene--you think the men didn't _mean_ to play fair? MISS L. (_her coolness in contrast to the excitement of the others_). Didn't the women sit quiet till ten minutes to closing time? JEAN. Ten minutes to settle a question like that! MISS L. (_quietly to_ MRS. FREDDY). Couldn't you see the men were at their old game? LADY JOHN (_coming forward_). You think they were just putting off the issue till it was too late?