The picture struck her as incredibly funny. First, there was the subject--"Our old friend Chivalry," Amory mused. Oh yes, Chivalry in other words, those garlands of roses in her own picture beneath which the iron chains peeped forth. Chivalry! Oh yes, Amory knew--any feminist knows--the toils men impose on women when they talk about Chivalry! Amory became cynical.... Let them amend the Divorce Laws, and _then_ Amory would listen to what they had to say about Chivalry! Let them give women equal opportunities with men, and she would excuse the lifting of a hat or the offering of a seat in a train! Chivalry might have had its place in the social organization of the Year Dot (see "Barrage"), but things had moved a bit since then, and woman to-day _would_ walk through puddles if she wished, though twenty cloaks were outspread for her to step on! Thank you very much for your Chivalry ... and _now_ will you give us a little Justice for a change?... And then the complacent handling of the thing! There was really nothing to be said! Nobody could say it wasn't "finished"; that was just it; it was fatally "finished"; the man had done exactly what he had set out to do, and--there it was. No unseizable desire, no unattainable dream, no Promethean attempt, no suspicion that here was not the last possible word on the subject; and _this_ in a new and straining and eager age, when men were just beginning to know that they knew nothing, and to put off their past boastings, and to take the cave-dweller into their counsels as their equal, perhaps their superior, in knowledge! Here, actually to-day, was a man who truly thought that he knew a thing or two more than the cave-dweller! Oh, the smugness, the self-satisfaction! Really, Amory would not dare to show such a man her "Barrage"; its pure heart of fire, shining even through all its shortcomings, would have shrivelled him and his conceit up! For surely there, in "Barrage," was the true impulse of the arts to-day. Some called it "propagandist," but what, Amory wanted to know, had all these Virgins and Children, all these Crucifixions, all these Holy Families of the past been but propaganda? The arts had been shackled to the propagation of superstition and dogma, and of the tenets of a religion that had found its expression one day in seven; but in the Newer Day all days were going to be equally holy, with the abolition of the Sabbath as a first step to the consecration of the other six. To the Virgins and Children of the future a proper comprehension of the Rights of Woman and the Responsibilities of Parentage would be brought. Eugenics would have a word to say about the Holy Families. The Crucifixions would probably be cut out altogether.... To bring that day nearer was Amory's mission. If she could only sell "Barrage"--and she thought she could now, for the Women's Manumission Guild had approached her about it, and an Executive was further considering it....