t looked down upon a new
building being erected across the way. It was on this building that
Mizzi Markis worked as hod carrier.

The war accustomed us to a million women in overalls doing the work of a
million men. We saw them ploughing, juggling steel bars, making shells,
running engines, stoking furnaces, handling freight. But to these two
American men, at that time, the thing at which these labouring women
were employed was dreadful and incredible.

Said Wallie "By the time we've dressed, and had breakfast, and walked a
little and everything, it'll be almost noon. And noon's the time. After
they've eaten their lunch. But I want you to see her before."

By now his earnestness had impressed Hahn who still feigned an
indifference he did not feel. It was about 11:30 when Wallie propelled
him by the arm to the unfinished building across the way. And there he
met Mizzi.

They were just completing the foundation. The place was a busy hive.
Back and forth with pails. Back and forth with loads of bricks.

"What's the matter with the men?" was Hahn's first question.

Wallie explained. "They do the dainty work. They put one brick on top of
the other, with a dab of mortar between. But none of the back-breaking
stuff for them. The women do that."

And it was so. They were down in the pits mixing the mortar, were the
women. They were carrying great pails of it. They were hauling bricks up
one ladder and down. They wore short, full skirts with a
musical-comedy-chorus effect. Some of them looked seventy and some
seventeen. It was fearful work for a woman. A keen wind was blowing
across the river. Their hands were purple.

"Pick Mizzi," said Wallie. "If you can pick her I'll know I'm right. But
I know it, anyway."

Five minutes passed. The two men stood silent. "The one with the walk
and the face," said Hahn, then. Which wasn't very bright of him, because
they all walked and they all had faces. "Going up the pit-ladder now.
With the pail on her head." Wallie gave a little laugh of triumph. But
then, Hahn wouldn't have been Hahn had he not been able to pick a
personality when he saw it.

Years afterward the reviewers always talked of Mizzi's walk. They called
it her superb carriage. They didn't know that you have to walk very
straight, on the balls of your feet, with your hips firm, your stomach
held in flat, your shoulders back, your chest out, your chin out and a
little down, if you are going to be at all successful in