Chapter VIWhen Mr Hale had finished explaining the exact legal position of an illegitimate daughter whose father had died intestate, Miss Standing’s eyes were round with indignation.
‘I never heard anything so frightfully unjust in all my life,’ she said firmly.
‘I’m afraid that doesn’t alter the law.’
‘What’s the good of women having the vote then? I thought all those frightful unjust laws were going to be altered at once when women get the vote. Miss Clay always said so.’
Mr Hale had never heard of Miss Clay, who was in fact an undermistress at Mme Mardon’s. He himself had always been opposed to women’s suffrage.
‘Do you mean to say’—Miss Standing sat bolt upright with her plump hands clasped on her blue serge knee—‘do you actually mean to say that I don’t get anything?’
‘You are n
