MADAME NERISSE. Indeed! May I ask what your reason is? MONSIEUR MAFFLU. I am just on the point of letting the second floor. My future tenant has young daughters. MADAME NERISSE. I'm afraid I don't see what that has got to do with it. MONSIEUR MAFFLU. Well--he'll live only in a house in which all the tenants are private families. MADAME NERISSE. But we make no noise. We are not in any way objectionable. MONSIEUR MAFFLU. Oh, no, no; not at all. MADAME NERISSE. Well, then? MONSIEUR MAFFLU. How shall I explain? I'm certain you're perfectly all right, and all the ladies who are with you here too, but I've had to give in that house property is depreciated by people that work; all the more if the people are ladies, and most of all if they're ladies who write books or bring out a newspaper with such a name as _Woman Free_. People who know nothing about it think from such a name--oh, bless you, I understand all that's rubbish, but--well--the letting value of the house, you see. [_He laughs_] MADAME NERISSE. The sight of women who work for their living offends these people, does it? MONSIEUR MAFFLU. Yes, that's the idea. A woman who works is always a little--hum--well--you know what I mean. Of course I mean nothing to annoy you. MADAME NERISSE. You mean that your future tenants don't want their young ladies to have our example before them. MONSIEUR MAFFLU. No! That's just what they don't. Having independent sort of people like you about makes 'em uneasy. For me, you know, I wouldn't bother about it--only--of course you don't see it this way, but you're odd--off the common somehow. You make one feel queer. MADAME NERISSE. But there are plenty of women who work. MONSIEUR MAFFLU. Oh, common women, yes; oh, that's all right. MADAME NERISSE. If you have children, they have nurses and governesses. MONSIEUR MAFFLU. Oh, those. They work, of course. They work for me, that's quite different. But you--What bothers these ladies, Madame Mafflu and all the others, is that you're in our own class. As for me I stick to the old saying, "Woman's place is the home." MADAME NERISSE. But there are women who have got no home. MONSIEUR MAFFLU. That's their own fault. MADAME NERISSE. Very often it's not at all their own fault. Where are they to go? Into the streets? MONSIEUR MAFFLU. I know, I know. There's all that. Still women can work without being feminists. MADAME NERISSE. Have you any idea what you mean by "feminist"? MONSIEUR MAFFLU. Not very clear. I know the people I live among don't know everything. I grant you all that. But _Woman Free! Woman Free!_ Madame Mafflu wants to know what liberty--or what liberties--singular or plural; do you take me?--ha! ha! There might be questions asked. MADAME NERISSE [_laughing_] You must do me the honor of introducing me to Madame Mafflu. She must be an interesting woman. I'll go and see her. MONSIEUR MAFFLU. Oh, do! But not on a Wednesday. MADAME NERISSE. Why not? MONSIEUR MAFFLU. 'Cos Wednesday's her day.