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Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself; there!
VICTORIA.
I only say, I ought to be allowed.
ENID.
And _I_ say that a man, reeking with infamy, ought not to be allowed to marry a pure girl----
VICTORIA.
Certainly not! _She_ ought to reek with infamy as well.
ENID.
Victoria!
[_Knock without._
VICTORIA.
What is the difference between man and woman?
ENID.
There is _no_ difference!
_Re-enter WELLS, door in flat._
WELLS.
Dr. Mary Bevan.
[_Exit WELLS._
_Enter DR. MARY BEVAN._
VICTORIA.
Why should a woman have children and a man have none?
ENID.
But a man _has_ children!
DOCTOR.
Only vicariously.
VICTORIA.
Here's Dr. Mary!
[_Rus.h.i.+ng up to DOCTOR. ENID has rushed up to the other side of her._
DOCTOR [_pragmatically_].
But I am not without hope that, when the attention of science is directed to the unequal incidence of the burden of maternity, some method of re-adjustment may be devised.
LADY WARGRAVE [_who has risen_].
Pardon me, ladies; but if you are about to consult your physician, you would no doubt prefer to be alone.
[_They turn and see her for the first time._
VICTORIA.
Pray, don't move.
GERALD.
My aunt, Lady Wargrave. Colonel Cazenove.
DOCTOR.
These matters are best discussed openly. A morbid modesty has too long closed our eyes. But the day of awakening has come. Sylvester, in her "Aspirations after a Higher Morality," Bethune, in her "Man, the Betrayer," Vivash, in her "Foolish Virgins," have postulated the s.e.xual problem from every conceivable point of view; and I have myself contributed to the discussion a modest little treatise----
ENID.
No, no, not modest!
VICTORIA.
Profound!
DOCTOR.
"Naked and Unashamed!"
ENID.
Man has done all the talking up to now----
VICTORIA.
He has had things all his own way----
DOCTOR.
