. Then out we go.

FELIAT. Well go, and be damned to you. [_Pause_] The women will take
your places.

GIRARD. You think so, do you? You think it's as easy as that. Well, try.
Just you try to fill up our places. Have you forgot there's two
delegates here from the Central Committee? A phone to Paris and your
bally show is done for.

FELIAT. It's damnable.

GIRARD. And if that doesn't choke you off, there's other things.

CHARPIN. We'll set the whole bloomin' place on fire.

GIRARD. Don't you try to bully us.

FELIAT. Well, look here. We won't quarrel. I'll send away Mademoiselle
Therese. But give me a little time to settle things up.

CHARPIN. No; out she goes.

FELIAT. Give me a month. I ask only a month.

GIRARD. An hour, that's all you'll get, an hour.

CHARPIN. An hour, not more.

GIRARD. We're going off to meet the delegates at the Hotel de la Poste;
you can send your answer there. The Parisian goes out sharp now, or else
look out for trouble. Come on, boys, let's go and tell the others.
There's nothing more to do here.

FELIAT. But stop, listen--

CHARPIN [_to Feliat_] That's our last word. [_To the others_] Hurry on.

_The workmen go out. Therese has come in a moment before and
is standing on the threshold._

FELIAT [_to Therese_] How much did you hear?

THERESE. Oh, please, please, don't give in. Don't abandon these women.
It's dreadful in the workroom. They're in despair. I've just been with
them, talking to them. They get desperate when they think of their
children.

FELIAT. The men are not asking me now to get rid of them. What they're
asking for is the break-up of your Union, and that you yourself should
go.

THERESE. Oh, they say that now. But if you give in, they'll see that
they can get anything they like from your weakness, and they'll make you
turn out all these wretched women.

FELIAT. But I can't help myself! You didn't hear the brutal threats of
these men. If I don't give in, I shall be blacklisted, and they'll set
the place on fire; they said so. Where will your women's work be then?
And I shall be ruined.

THERESE. Then you mean to give in without a struggle?

FELIAT. Would _you_ like to take the responsibility for what will happen
if I resist? There'll be violence. Just think what it'll mean. In the
state the men are in anything may happen. There's a wounded man already.
How many would there be to-morrow?

THERESE. You think only of being beaten. But suppose