ence is that never, prior
to the Great War, was such an enormous body of women awake after the
lethargic submission of centuries, and clamoring for their rights.
Never before have millions of women been supporting themselves; never
before had they even contemplated organization and the direct
political attack. Of course the women of Europe, exalted and worked
half to death, have, with the exception of a few irrepressibles, put
all idea of self-aggrandizement aside for the moment; but this idea
had grown too big and too dominant to be dismissed for good and all,
with last year's fashions and the memory of delicate _plats_ prepared
by chefs now serving valiantly within the lines. The big idea, the
master desire, the obsession, if you like, is merely taking an
enforced rest, and there is persistent speculation as to what the
thinking and the energetic women of Europe will do when this war is
over, and how far men will help or hinder them.

I have written upon this question in its bearings upon the women of
France more fully in another chapter; but it may be stated here that
such important feminists as Madame Verone, the eminent avocat, and
Mlle. Valentine Thompson, the youngest but one of the ablest of the
leaders, while doing everything to help and nothing to embarrass their
Government, never permit the question to recede wholly to the
background. Mlle. Thompson argues that the men in authority should not
be permitted for a moment to forget, not the services of women in this
terrible chapter of France's destiny, for that is a matter of course,
as ever, but the marked capabilities women have shown when suddenly
thrust into positions of authority. In certain invaded towns the wives
of imprisoned or executed Mayors have taken their place almost
automatically and served with a capacity unrelated to sex. In some of
these towns women have managed the destinies of the people since the
first month of the war, understanding them as no man has ever done,
and working harder than most men are ever willing to work. Thousands
have, under the spur, developed unsuspected capacities, energies,
endurance, above all genuine executive abilities. That these women
should be swept back into private life by the selfishness of men when
the killing business is over, is, to Mlle. Thompson's mind,
unthinkable. In her newspaper, _La Vie Feminine_, she gives weekly
instances of the resourcefulness and devotion of French womanhood, and
although the wo