"I would like to offer this freedom to others.
Like Flo, for instance.
I've known her all my life, though we haven't seen much of each other
since we were children.
She was made fun of by the boys because she was too good at what they
liked to think themselves good at and by the girls because she had too
many of the qualities arbitrarily assigned to boys. She's very intelligent,
and rather grim now when she was always serious.
There's no frivolity to her; she thinks that an unconscionable allowance in
a world such as ours. She's a very good nurse, but she would have been a
better doctor. She can diagnose instinctively, intuitively, however you
wish to describe it. She looks at people and into them and she sees
what's amiss in them.
I met her last week by chance. I hadn't seen her in years. She's had some
hard times. She's spoken out, you see, in hospitals where she worked and
has been dismissed and no one now will have her.
Troublemaker.
Restless female.
But Flo sees careless or faulty procedures which endanger patients and
she speaks out."
"And has paid."
"So I'll give her a free place to stay. It will be her home, free from
financial worries and from mental confinements and constrictions. She can
think, organize, venture out. She can continue her work, whether it be
nursing private cases, and there will be those, I can find her those among
women, or she can teach others to be nurses, or we can forge ahead to
get the girls into medical colleges or we can institute one of our own. But
she will have the freedom here, the security and support to begin that.
Changes will be made."
Cesca nodded. She offered me dates and apricots with my tea. "Has she
accepted?"
"I invited her for a visit. She looked so tired and despondent. She's agreed to come. I will seek out Iris, too. I saw her last month and she's been driven to distraction by refusing yet another rich and handsome suitor and her parents are making her life intolerable. She loves Vanessa, of course, and will never love anyone else. It seems clear to me they all ought to focus on her younger sisters who are also furious with her because no one will look at them as long as Iris is there."
"You will ask Iris and Vanessa here."
"Exactly," I vowed nodding with vigor and tossing the pits of dates and
apricots into my teacup.
"I guess you care for no more tea," Cesca remarked.
"Exactly."
"Then I'll finish it. Will there be others?"
"Oh, yes. I'm sure there will be. I'll let it be known that there is a place
where women can come to sort themselves out and to receive the
security and seclusion they may require in order to do this. I have Zora,
you know, and she won't permit anyone near or to remain without my
permission."
(Georgina) "She has taken everything from me.
Everything.
She changed everything. Forever."
I will destroy her."