inferences). Do you mean to say that somebody had the audacity to
guarantee that my Julia is not a womanly woman?

CHARTERIS (darkly). It sounds incredible; but a man was found ready to
take that inconceivable lie on his conscience.

JULIA (firing up). If he has nothing worse than that on his
conscience, he may sleep pretty well. In what way am I more womanly
than any of the rest of them, I should like to know? They are always
saying things like that behind my back--I hear of them from Sylvia.
Only the other day a member of the committee said I ought never to
have been elected--that you (to Charteris) had smuggled me in. I
should like to see her say it to my face: that's all.

CRAVEN. But, my precious, I most sincerely hope she was right. She
paid you the highest compliment. Why, the place must be a den of
infamy.

CUTHBERTSON (emphatically). So it is, Craven, so it is.

CHARTERIS. Exactly. That's what keeps it so select: nobody but people
whose reputations are above suspicion dare belong to it. If we once
got a good name, we should become a mere whitewashing shop for all the
shady characters in London. Better join us, Craven. Let me put you up.

CRAVEN. What! Join a club where there's some scoundrel who guaranteed
my daughter to be an unwomanly woman! If I weren't an invalid, I'd
kick him.

CHARTERIS. Oh don't say that. It was I who did it.