rewrote it for
a syndicate. For a year after this she used the newspapers as a sort
of apprenticeship to literature and wrote story after story until she
had learned the craft of "plotting." When she felt free in her new
medium she began writing for the better magazines; and, compared with
most authors, she has had little hard climbing in her upward course.
Naturally, there were obstacles and setbacks, but she is not of the
stuff that ten times the number could discourage.

Then came the third stage. She wrote a novel. It was refused by many
publishers in New York, but finally accepted as a serial in the first
magazine that had rejected it.

This was _The Heart of the Desert_. After that followed _Still Jim_
which established her and paved the way for an immediate reception for
that other fine novel of American ideals, _Lydia of the Pines_.

It was about two years ago that she was asked to undertake the
editorship of the _Delineator_, and at first she hesitated, although
the "job" appealed to her; she had no reason to believe that she
possessed executive ability. The owner, who had "sized her up,"
thought differently, and the event has justified him. She ranks to-day
as one of the most successful, courageous, and resourceful editors of
woman's magazines in the country. The time must come, of course, when
she no longer will be willing to give up her time to editorial work,
now that there is a constant demand for the work she loves best; but
the experience with its contacts and its mental training must always
have its value. The remarkable part of it was that she could fill such
a position without having served some sort of an apprenticeship first.
Nothing but the sound mental training she had received at home and at
college, added to her own determined will, could have saved her from
failure in spite of her mental gifts.

Mrs. Willsie, like all women worth their salt, says that she never has
felt there was the slightest discrimination made against her work by
publishers or editors because she was a woman.

THE END

ADDENDUM

NOTE.--_Six months ago I wrote asking Madame d'Andigne to send me
notes of her work before becoming the President of Le Bien--Etre du
Blesse. She promised, but no woman in France is busier. The following
arrived after the book was in press, so I can only give it
verbatim.--G.A._

At the time this gigantic struggle broke out I was in America. My
first thought was to get to Franc