MISS L. The gods saw it was so little effectual, it wasn't worth taking away. (_She stands looking out into the void._) One woman's mishap?--what is that? A thing as trivial to the great world as it's sordid in most eyes. But the time has come when a woman may look about her, and say, "What general significance has my secret pain? Does it 'join on' to anything?" And I find it does. I'm no longer merely a woman who has stumbled on the way. I'm one (_she controls with difficulty the shake in her voice_) who has got up bruised and bleeding, wiped the dust from her hands and the tears from her face, and said to herself not merely, "Here's one luckless woman! but--here is a stone of stumbling to many. Let's see if it can't be moved out of other women's way." And she calls people to come and help. No mortal man, let alone a woman, _by herself_, can move that rock of offence. But (_with a sudden sombre flame of enthusiasm_) if many help, Geoffrey, the thing can be done. STONOR (_looks at her with wondering pity_). Lord! how you care! MISS L. (_touched by his moved face_). Don't be so sad. Shall I tell you a secret? Jean's ardent dreams needn't frighten you, if she has a child. _That_--from the beginning, it was not the strong arm--it was the weakest--the little, little arms that subdued the fiercest of us. (STONOR _puts out a pitying hand uncertainly towards her. She does not take it, but speaks with great gentleness._) You will have other children, Geoffrey--for me there was to be only one. Well, well--(_she brushes her tears away_)--since men alone have tried and failed to make a decent world for the little children to live in--it's as well some of us are childless. (_Quietly taking up her hat and cloak._) Yes, _we_ are the ones who have no excuse for standing aloof from the fight. STONOR. Vida! MISS L. What? STONOR. You've forgotten something. (_As she looks back he is signing the message._) _This._ (_She goes out silently with the "political dynamite" in her hand._) CURTAIN. The Gresham Press, UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, WOKING AND LONDON. Corrections. The first line indicates the original, the second the correction. p. 43: we all realise it was a perfectiy lunatic proceeding we all realise it was a perfectly lunatic proceeding p. 73: the unemployed in the condition they' e the unemployed in the condition they're p. 92: you aren't going away lik that. you aren't going away like that. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Votes for Women, by Elizabeth Robins