ting it is! And now here is the light
in another form: the right to drop a bit of paper into a box every four
years or so and settle thereby whether the Home Secretary who
administers the law of my trade shall live in fear of buff prejudice or
blue.'

The suffragist said nothing for a second. She felt shaken by Victoria's
bitterness.

'Women will have no party,' she said lamely, 'they will vote as women.'

'Oh? I have heard somewhere that the danger of giving women the vote is
that they will vote solid "as women," as you say and swamp the men. Is
that so?'

'No, I'm afraid not,' said the suffragist unguardedly, 'of course women
will split up into political parties.'

'Indeed? Then where is this woman vote which is going to remould the
world? It is swamped in the ordinary parties.'

The suffragist was in a dilemma.

'You forget,' she answered, wriggling on the horns, 'that women can
always be aroused for a noble cause. . . .'

'Am I a noble cause?' asked Victoria, smiling. 'So far as I can see
women, even the highest of them, despise us because we do illegally
what they do legally, hate us because we attract, envy us because we
shine. I have often thought that if Christ had said, "Let her who hath
never sinned . . ." the woman would have been stoned. What do you
think?'

The suffragist hesitated, cleared her throat.

'That will all go when we have the vote, women will be a force, a nobler
force; they will realise . . . they will sympathise more . . . then they
will cast their vote for women.'

Victoria shook her head.

'Miss Welkin,' she said, 'you are an idealist. Now, will you ask me to
your next meeting if you are satisfied as to my views, announce me for
what I am and introduce me to your committee?'

'I don't see . . . I don't think,' stammered the suffragist, 'you see
some of our committee. . . .'

Victoria laughed.

'You see. Never mind. I assure you I wouldn't go. But, tell me,
supposing women get the vote, most of my class will be disfranchised on
the present registration law. What will you women do for us?'

The suffragist thought for a minute.

'We shall raise the condition of women,' she said. 'We shall give them a
new status, increase the respect of men for them, increase their respect
for themselves; besides, it will raise wages and that will help. We
shall . . . we shall have better means of reform too.'

'What means?'

'When women have more sympathy.'

'Votes don't mean sympath