hitherto wrought. Further observation showed her however that an
idealism of this kind would not lead the world speedily into a peaceful
haven. She saw too well that covetousness was still lurking snakelike in
the bosom of man, ready to rear its ugly head and strike at any hand.
Thus she was not surprised to see the chaos which reigned among
socialists, their intriguing, their jealousies, their unending
dissensions, their apostacies. This did not throw her back into the
stereotyped philosophy of individualism; for she could not help seeing
that the system of modern life was absurd, stupidly wasteful above all
of time, labour and wealth. To apply Nietzscheism to socialism was,
however, beyond her; to reconcile the two doctrines which apparently
conflict and really only overlap was a task too difficult for a brain
which had lain fallow for twenty-five years. But she dimly felt that
Nietzscheism did not mean a glorified imperialism, but a worship of
intellectual efficiency and the stringent morality of _noblesse oblige_.

Where Victoria began to part issue with her own thoughts was when she
considered the position of women. Their outlook was one of unrelieved
gloom; and it one day came upon her as a revelation that Nietzsche and
Schopenhauer, following in a degree on Rousseau, had forgotten women in
the scheme of life. There might be supermen but there would be no
superwomen: if the supermen were true to their type they would have to
crush and to dominate the women. As the latter fared so hard at the
hands of the pigmies of to-day, what would they do if they could not
develop in time to resist the sons of Anak? Victoria saw that the world
was entering upon a sex war. Hitherto a shameful state of peace had left
women in the hands of men, turning over the other cheek to the smiter.
The sex war, however, held forth no hopes to her; in the dim future, sex
equality might perhaps prevail; but she saw nothing to indicate that
women had sown the seeds of their victory. She had no wish to enrol
herself in the ranks of those who were waging an almost hopeless battle,
armed with untrained intellects and unathletic bodies. She could not get
away from the fact that the best woman athletes cannot compete with
ordinary men, that even women with high intellectual qualifications had
not ousted from commanding positions men of inferior ability.

All this, she thought, was unjust; but why hope for a change? There was
nothing to show that men