undred educated and disinterested people,
who should weigh the testimony and render their decision under oath. It
is scarcely necessary to add that few criminals ever were pardoned. It
removed from the office of Governor the responsibility of pardoning, or
rejecting pardons as a purely personal privilege. It abolished the
power of rich criminals to bribe their escape from justice; a practice
that had secretly existed in the former Republic.

"In forming their Government, the women, who were its founders, profited
largely by the mistakes or wisdom displayed in the Government of men.
Neither the General Government, nor the State Government, could be
independent of the other. A law of the Union could not become such until
ratified by every State Legislature. A State law could not become
constitutional until ratified by Congress.

"In forming the State Constitutions, laws were selected from the
different State Constitutions that had proven wise for State Government
during the former Republic. In the Republic of men, each State had made
and ratified its own laws, independent of the General Government. The
consequence was, no two States possessed similar laws.

"To secure strength and avoid confusion was the aim of the founders of
the new Government. The Constitution of the National Government provided
for the exclusion of the male sex from all affairs and privileges for a
period of one hundred years.

"_At the end of that time not a representative of the sex was in
existence._"

CHAPTER III.

I expressed my astonishment at her revelation. Their social life existed
under conditions that were incredible to me. Would it be an impertinence
to ask for an explanation that I might comprehend? Or was it really the
one secret they possessed and guarded from discovery, a mystery that
must forever surround them with a halo of doubt, the suggestion of
uncanny power? I spoke as deprecatingly as I could. The Preceptress
turned upon me a calm but penetrating gaze.

"Have we impressed you as a mysterious people?" she asked.

"Very, very much!" I exclaimed. "I have at times been oppressed by it."

"You never mentioned it," she said, kindly.

"I could not find an opportunity to," I said.

"It is the custom in Mizora, as you have no doubt observed, never to
make domestic affairs a topic of conversation outside of the family, the
only ones who would be interested in them; and this refinement has kept
you from the solution o