has a special message for the women of the future. But I must not bore
you with this when you have so many matters of more importance to hold
your attention."

Monsieur Duval shook his head.

"You are not boring me, Madame. You could not do that, but in any case
remember you are talking to a Frenchman about the women of his own
country. Sometimes I think we Frenchmen confuse our women and our
country; to us they are so much one and the same thing. When we fight
for France, we are fighting for our women, when we fight to protect our
women we are fighting to save France. I do not believe the world half
realizes what great burdens the French women bore after the
Franco-Prussian war, only forty years ago, not only in working shoulder
to shoulder with their men, but by inspiring them after a bitter and
cruel defeat. The courage, the steadfastness which France has revealed
in the four long years of this present war is one way in which we have
tried to pay our immense debt to them."

Unable to reply because of the tears which she made no effort to
conceal, Mrs. Burton remained silent for a few moments. When she finally
spoke it was with a kind of diffidence:

"Monsieur Duval, has it ever occurred to you how strange it is that,
aside from our American Revolution, most of the great modern wars for
democracy have been fought upon French soil? I have thought of this many
times and sorrowed over what seems the injustice to your race. Forgive
me if I appear too fanciful! Recently I have recognized why France
always is represented by the symbolic figure of a woman. She has endured
the birth of the world's freedom inside her body and her soul."

In Mrs. Burton's speech there was perhaps nothing original, but always
there was the old thrilling beautiful quality to her voice which stirred
her audience, whether large or small.

Monsieur Duval did not attempt to hide both his admiration and interest
in his companion. The second day out at sea they had been introduced to
each other by Mrs. Bishop, the woman novelist, with whom Mrs. Burton had
a slight acquaintance in New York City. Indeed, they had met only upon
one occasion, but on shipboard one is apt to renew acquaintances which
one would have considered of no special interest at other times.

Since their original meeting Mrs. Burton and the French commissioner,
whom she had discovered to be a member of the French senate as well, had
spent several hours each day in talking toget