ix feet; physically
perfect;--what the human girl ought to be and seldom is;--symmetrical,
flawless, healthy--a super-girl ... like some young daughter of the
northern gods!... Ilse Westgard."

"One of those women soldiers, you say?" inquired Shotwell, mildly
curious.

"Yes. There were all kinds of women in that Death Battalion. We saw
them,--your friend Palla Dumont and I,--saw them halted and standing
at ease in a birch wood; saw them marching into fire.... And there were
all sorts of women, Jim; peasant, bourgeoise and aristocrat;--there
were dressmakers, telephone operators, servant-girls, students, Red
Cross nurses, actresses from the Marinsky, Jewesses from the Pale,
sisters of the Yellow Ticket, Japanese girls, Chinese, Cossack,
English, Finnish, French.... And they went over the top cheering for
Russia!... They went over to shame the army which had begun to run from
the hun.... Pretty fine, wasn't it?"

"Fine!"

"You bet!... After this war--after what women have done the world
over--I wonder whether there are any asses left who desire to
restrict woman to a 'sphere'?... I'd like to see Ilse Westgard again,"
he added absently.

"Was she a peasant girl?"

"No. A daughter of well-to-do people. Quite the better sort, I should
say. And she was more thoroughly educated than the average girl of our
own sort.... A brave and cheerful soldier in the Battalion of
Death.... Ilse Westgard.... Amazing, isn't it?"

After another brief silence Shotwell ventured: "I suppose you'd find
it agreeable to meet Palla Dumont again, wouldn't you?"

"Why, yes, of course," replied the other pleasantly.

"Then, if you like, she'll ask us to tea some day--after her new house
is in shape."

"You seem to be very sure about what Palla Dumont is likely to do,"
said Estridge, smiling.

"Indeed, I'm not!" retorted Shotwell, with emphasis. "Palla Dumont has
a mind of her own,--although you don't seem to think so,----"

"I think she has a _will_ of her own," interrupted the other, amused.

"Glad you concede her _some_ mental attribute."

"I do indeed! I never intimated that she is weak-willed. She isn't.
Other and stronger wills don't dominate hers. Perhaps it would be
better if they did sometimes....

"But no; Palla Dumont arrives headlong at her own red-hot decisions.
It is not the will of others that influences her; it is their
indecision, their lack of willpower, their very weakness that seems to
stimulate and vitally influ