tired. It must have been her fault--she
did not make herself sufficiently attractive--that's all! She waits
again.

At last perhaps she gets married. But her periods of waiting are not
over. Her husband wanders free while she stays at home. We know the
picture of the waiting wife listening for footsteps while the clock
ticks loudly in the silent house. The world has decreed that the woman
and home must stay together, while the man goes about his business or
his pleasures--the tied-up woman and the foot-loose man.

Her boys grow up, and when war breaks out, they are called away from
her, and again the woman waits. Every telegraph boy who comes up the
street may bring the dreaded message; every time the door bell rings
her heart stops beating. But she cannot do anything but wait! wait!
wait!

Did you ever visit an old folks' home and notice the different spirit
shown by the men and women there? The old men are restless and
irritable; impatient of their inaction; rebellious against fate. The
old women patiently wait, looking out with their dimmed eyes like
marooned sailors waiting for a breeze. Poor old patient waiters! you
learned the art of waiting in a long hard school, and now you have come
to the last lap of the journey.

So they wait--and by and by their waiting will be over, for the kindly
tide will rise and bear them safely out on its strong bosom to some
place--where they will find not more rest but blessed activity! We
know there is another world, because we need it so badly to set this
one right!

Women have not always been "waiters." There was a day long past, when
women chose their mates, when men fought for the hand of the woman they
loved, and the women chose. The female bird selects her mate today,
goes out and makes her choice, and, it is not considered unbirdly
either.

Why should not women have the same privilege as men to choose their
mate? Marriage means more to a woman than to a man; she brings in a
larger contribution than he; often it happens that she gives all--he
gives nothing. The care and upbringing of the children depend upon her
faithfulness, not on his. Why should she not have the privilege of
choosing?

Too long has the whole process of love-making and marriage been wrapped
in mystery. "Part of it has been considered too holy to be spoken of
and part of it too unholy," says Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Innocence
has been esteemed a young girl's greatest charm, but