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