KATE. At dead of night? I don't think we ought to strangle watchmen at
dead of night unless we have a chaperone, do you girls?
SUSAN. Nonsense! What kind of Suffragettes are you to need a chaperone?
I don't have a chaperone.
GRACE. Well, I don't care! I'm not going out strangling at night without
a chaperone! It isn't proper.
SUSAN. But you are a pirate.
EDITH. I don't care if we are pirates. We don't have to be improper
pirates. I want to strangle and murder in a perfectly proper manner.
PAULINE. How about takin' the old lady with you?
KATE. Grandma Gregg? Why, she's no Suffragette. Oh, girls! The very
thing! We _will_ take Grandma Gregg! We'll capture her! We'll take her,
in chains!
SUSAN. Excellent! _You_ will have your chaperone, and I will be rid of
the most dangerous Anti-suffra-gette! Seek her and seize her!
All. We go! We go! (_exit all, left, except_ PAULINE) (_enter_ GRANDMA
GREGG, _right_)
GRANDMA. I thought I heard a noise, Pauline. How are the dear girls
getting on with their lessons?
PAULINE, (_curtseys_) Fine, mam. They're learning new tricks every day.
GRANDMA. (_picking up dummy and laying it over chair back_) Very good.
But I wouldn't wear a bandeau on my hair if I were you, Pauline. I don't
like these ribbons bound around the head of young girls. They make them
look like pirates. (PAULINE _starts uneasily_)
PAULINE. Pirates, mam? What a notion!
GRANDMA. Pirates, or Italian ditch diggers.
PAULINE, (_boldly_) Well, mam, let it be pirates, then. Pirate is what I
am. (_hesitates_) Grandma Gregg, you've always been good to me, barring
the scrubbing and mopping and blacking shoes and stoves. If I was you,
mam, I'd pack some clothes, so as to be ready for the sea voyage.
GRANDMA. Me? A sea voyage?
PAULINE. Yes'm. (_curtseys_) This Susan Jane Jones is not what she
seems, mam. I let on, mam, I was of her way of thinking, mam, but I
ain't. A husband is good enough woman's rights for me, mam. A nice,
quiet, well-behaved husband like that one there is all I want.
GRANDMA. I don't understand you.
PAULINE. Susan Jane Jones is a Militant Suffragette, mam.
GRANDMA. A Militant Suffragette? In this academy?
PAULINE. Yes, mam. (_curtseys_) She's here like a snake in the grass,
mam, and her and the young ladies is goin' to extinguish all the men.
They're all goin' to be pirates, mam, and most bloody minded pirates
they be, too. And you, mam, that never did them any harm, they are going
to capture and take along with them in chains. For a chaperone, mam.
GRANDMA, (_hanging her head_) And is this the reward for my efforts to
make good wives of them!
(_Enter_ SUSAN _cautiously. She beckons to the girls_.)
SUSAN. This way! She's here!
(_The girls creep in, knives in their teeth, swaggering like story-book
pirates._ SUSAN _folds her arms._)
SUSAN. Woman! Your hour has come!
GRANDMA. Well, I do declare!
SUSAN. These poor maidens you thought to corrupt into housework ways, I
have won from you. Here, to-day, the revolution that will sweep the men
from the land and sea, begins! We are resolved! ALL. (_shouting_) We are
resolved!
SUSAN. In these hearts burns nothing but hatred and detestation of man.
ALL. (_shouting_) Hatred and detestation.
KATE. We don't want to have anything more to do with men.
GRACE. We are absolutely through with them. And with boys, too.