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absolutely right! And if Members of Parliament had to account to women as well as men to get elected, there wouldn’t be the injustices there are now!”
    “What injustices?” someone demanded. “What does a good woman need that she does not have?”
    “No natural woman wants to expose herself to ridicule,” the woman in the plum-colored hat said loudly, her voice rising with increasing indignation, “by parading for people to accept or reject her, pleading with them to listen to her, choose her, believe in her opinions or trust her judgment in affairs she knows nothing about! Miss Taylor is a laughingstock, and far from being a friend to women, she is our worst enemy. Not even Dr. Pankhurst would be seen in public with her! Standing for Parliament, indeed! Next thing you know we’ll become harridans, like that miserable Ivory woman, who has abandoned all semblance of decency and restraint which is essential to a woman and all that is precious to society—indeed to civilization!”
    There were several cries of approval and even louder hisses and expostulations of outrage. Some even demanded that the traitors to the cause should leave and go back to their nurseries, or whatever other confining place they usually inhabited.
    A stout woman in bombazine raised an umbrella, unfortunately catching the ferrule of it in an elderly housemaid’s skirts. There was a hiccup and a shriek of alarm. The housemaid, thinking she was being assaulted for her abuse of the lady in the plum hat, whisked her handbag round and landed it soundly on the head of the woman in bombazine, and the resulting melee had very little to do with the exercise of privilege or responsibility, and even less to do with Parliament.
    Having no wish to become involved in a brawl, Charlotte withdrew. She was only a few yards outside the hall via the rear exit when she saw the woman whose face had drawn her attention. She was standing quite close, unaware of Charlotte, her attention caught by a hansom drawn up at the curb. The woman had her back to Charlotte and was arguing fiercely with a slim, elegantly dressed man whose fair hair shone almost white in the sun. He was obviously extremely annoyed.
    “My dear Parthenope, this is both unseemly, and to be frank, a trifle ridiculous. You are letting me down by even being seen in such a place, and I am distressed that you should not have realized it!”
    Charlotte could not see the woman’s face, but her voice was thick with a confusion of emotions.
    “I am tempted to make the obvious answer to excuse myself, Cuthbert, and say that no one there knew who I was. But that is irrelevant.”
    “Indeed it is! The risk—”
    But she cut him short. “I am not talking about the risk! What if I am known to care that women should be represented in Parliament?”
    “Women are represented!” He was exasperated now, and there was a flash of impatience in his face. “You are excellently represented by the present members of the House! For heaven’s sake, we don’t legislate simply for ourselves! Who on earth have you been listening to? Have you seen that wretched Ivory woman again? I most specifically told you that I did not wish it! Why do you insist on disobeying me? The woman is a virago, a miserable, unbalanced creature who embodies everything that is most to be deplored in a woman.”
    “No I have not seen her!” Parthenope’s voice was low, but it now held an intensity of anger. “I told you I would not, and I have not! But I shall not stop listening to what people have to say about women one day obtaining the franchise.”
    “Then listen at home; read articles, if you must—although it will never happen. It is quite unnecessary and unsuitable. Women’s interests are very well cared for now, and all women with any sense are fully aware of it!”
    “Indeed!” Her voice grew harder, and high with sarcasm. “Then I have little sense! Only that which is required to govern a household of eight servants, see to