be very sure that they have quite too much spirit to consent to be
mere beneficiaries of society, even as a return for ornamenting it.
They did, indeed, welcome their riddance from housework, because that
was not only exceptionally wearing in itself, but also wasteful, in
the extreme, of energy, as compared with the cooperative plan; but
they accepted relief from that sort of work only that they might
contribute in other and more effectual, as well as more agreeable,
ways to the common weal. Our women, as well as our men, are members of
the industrial army, and leave it only when maternal duties claim
them. The result is that most women, at one time or another of their
lives, serve industrially some five or ten or fifteen years, while
those who have no children fill out the full term."

"A woman does not, then, necessarily leave the industrial service on
marriage?" I queried.

"No more than a man," replied the doctor. "Why on earth should she?
Married women have no housekeeping responsibilities now, you know, and
a husband is not a baby that he should be cared for."

"It was thought one of the most grievous features of our civilization
that we required so much toil from women," I said; "but it seems to me
you get more out of them than we did."

Dr. Leete laughed. "Indeed we do, just as we do out of our men. Yet
the women of this age are very happy, and those of the nineteenth
century, unless contemporary references greatly mislead us, were very
miserable. The reason that women nowadays are so much more efficient
co-laborers with the men, and at the same time are so happy, is that,
in regard to their work as well as men's, we follow the principle of
providing every one the kind of occupation he or she is best adapted
to. Women being inferior in strength to men, and further disqualified
industrially in special ways, the kinds of occupation reserved for
them, and the conditions under which they pursue them, have reference
to these facts. The heavier sorts of work are everywhere reserved for
men, the lighter occupations for women. Under no circumstances is a
woman permitted to follow any employment not perfectly adapted, both
as to kind and degree of labor, to her sex. Moreover, the hours of
women's work are considerably shorter than those of men's, more
frequent vacations are granted, and the most careful provision is made
for rest when needed. The men of this day so well appreciate that they
owe to the beauty and grac