ose income had been merely cut by the war, not extinguished. It was
as I walked along the galleries and down the narrow passages between
the noisy machinery of the rest of that large factory that I asked the
superintendent again and again if these women were of the same class
as the original applicants. The answer in every case was the same.

The women had high chests and brawny arms. They tossed thirty-and
forty-pound shells from one to the other as they once may have tossed
a cluster of artificial flowers. Their skins were clean and often
ruddy. Their eyes were bright. They showed no signs whatever of
overwork. They were almost without exception the original applicants.

[Illustration: MAKING THE SHELLS]

I asked the superintendent if there were no danger of heart strain. He
said there had been no sign of it so far. Three times a week they were
inspected by women doctors appointed by the Government, and any little
disorder was attended to at once. But not one had been ill a day.
Those that had suffered from chronic dyspepsia, colds, and tubercular
tendency were now as strong as if they had lived their lives on farms.
It was all a question of plenty of fresh air, and work that
strengthened the muscles of their bodies, developed their chests and
gave them stout nerves and long nights of sleep.

As I looked at those bare heavily muscled arms I wondered if any man
belonging to them would ever dare say his soul was his own again. But
as their heads are always charmingly dressed (an odd effect
surmounting greasy overalls) and as they invariably powder before
filing out at the end of the day's work, it is probable that a
comfortable reliance may still be placed upon the ineradicable
coquetry of the French woman. And the scarcer the men in the future
the more numerous, no doubt, will be the layers of powder.

I asked one pretty girl if she really liked the heavy, dirty,
malodorous work, and she replied that making boutonnieres for
gentlemen in a florist-shop was paradise by contrast, but she was only
too happy to be doing as much for France in her way as her brother
was in his. She added that when the war was over she should take off
her blue linen apron streaked with machine grease once for all, not
remain from choice as many would. But meanwhile it was not so bad! She
made ten francs a day. Some of the women received as high as fifteen.
Moreover, they bossed the few men whose brawn was absolutely
indispensable and must