MISS L. You say I want to punish you only because, like most men, you won't take the trouble to understand what we do want--or how determined we are to have it. You can't kill this new spirit among women. (_Going nearer._) And you couldn't make a greater mistake than to think it finds a home only in the exceptional, or the unhappy. It's so strange, Geoffrey, to see a man like you as much deluded as the Hyde Park loafers who say to Ernestine Blunt, "Who's hurt _your_ feelings?" Why not realise (_going quite close to him_) this is a thing that goes deeper than personal experience? And yet (_lowering her voice and glancing at the door_), if you take only the narrowest personal view, a good deal depends on what you and I agree upon in the next five minutes. STONOR (_bringing her farther away from the door_). You recommend my realising the larger issues. But in your ambition to attach that girl to the chariot wheels of "Progress," you quite ignore the fact that people fitter for such work--the men you look to enlist in the end--are ready waiting to give the thing a chance. MISS L. Men are ready! What men? STONOR (_avoiding her eyes, picking his words_). Women have themselves to blame that the question has grown so delicate that responsible people shrink--for the moment--from being implicated in it. MISS L. We have seen the "shrinking." STONOR. Without quoting any one else, I might point out that the New Antagonism seems to have blinded you to the small fact that I, for one, am not an opponent. MISS L. The phrase _has_ a familiar ring. We have heard it from four hundred and twenty others. STONOR. I spoke, if I may say so, of some one who would count. Some one who can carry his party along with him--or risk a seat in the Cabinet. MISS L. (_quickly_). Did you mean you are ready to do that? STONOR. An hour ago I was. MISS L. Ah!... an hour ago. STONOR. Exactly. You don't understand men. They can be led. They can't be driven. Ten minutes before you came into the room I was ready to say I would throw in my political lot with this Reform. MISS L. And now...? STONOR. Now you block my way by an attempt at coercion. By forcing my hand you give my adherence an air of bargain-driving for a personal end. Exactly the mistake of the ignorant agitators of your "Union," as you call it. You have a great deal to learn. This movement will go forward, not because of the agitation, but in spite of it. There are men in Parliament who would have been actively serving the Reform to-day ... as actively as so vast a constitutional change---- MISS L. (_smiles faintly_). And they haven't done it because---- STONOR. Because it would have put a premium on breaches of decent behaviour. (_He takes a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket._) Look here! MISS L. (_flushes with excitement as she reads the telegram_). This is very good. I see only one objection. STONOR. Objection! MISS L. You haven't sent it. STONOR. _That_ is your fault.