Part 22 (1/2)
”That's where you are ignorant, my dear. If an investigation is made, especially if the women mix themselves up in it, then we shall have no choice but enforcement.”
She had sunk down on her sofa, but now she sprang up. ”And you don't mean to enforce the law in respect of women? Is that why you don't want the investigation?”
”Not at all. You are most unjust. You are most illogical, Genevieve. All I am asking is that the whole question should not be taken up at this moment--just before election.”
”But this is the only moment when we can find out whether or not you are a candidate who will do what we want.”
”_We_, Genevieve! Who do you mean by 'we'?”
She stared for a second at him, her eyes growing large and dark with astonishment.
”Oh, George,” she gasped finally, ”I think I meant women when I said 'we.' George, I'm afraid I'm a _suffragist_. And oh,” she added, with a sort of wail, ”I don't want to be, I don't want to be!”
”d.a.m.n Betty Sheridan,” exclaimed George. ”This is all her doing.”
His wife shook her head. ”No,” she said, ”it wasn't Betty who made me see.”
”Who was it?”
”It was you, George.”
”I don't understand you.”
”You made me see why women want to vote for themselves. How can you represent me, when we disagree fundamentally?”
”How can we disagree fundamentally when we love each other?”
”You mean that because we love each other, I must think as you do?”
”What else could I mean, darling?”
”You might have meant that you would think as I do.”
George glanced at her in deep offense.
”We have indeed drifted far apart,” he said.
At this moment there was a knock at the door, and the news was conveyed to George that Mr. Evans was downstairs asking to see him.
”Oh dear,” said Genevieve, ”it seems as if we never could get a moment by ourselves nowadays. What does Penny want?”
”He wants to tell me whether he intends to dissolve partners.h.i.+p or not.”
Any fear that his wife had disa.s.sociated herself from his interests should have been dispelled by the tone in which she exclaimed: ”Dissolve partners.h.i.+p! Penny? Well, I never in my life! Where would Penny be without you, I should like to know! He must be crazy.”
These words made George feel happier than anything that had happened to him throughout this day. His self-esteem began to revive.
”I think Penny has been a little hasty,” he said, judicially but not unkindly. ”He lost all self-control when he heard I had let Betty go.”