“Are you prepared to enjoy the sight of a woman’s face?” was Mr. Lister’s first salutation to me as he entered the parlour where I was sitting soon after noon. The copy of _The Bitter Cry_ which I was reading fell from my hands. I looked at him searchingly, thinking that he must be jesting; but as his face was perfectly serious I concluded that he must refer to the golden time when the “Strike” should be peacefully settled, and woman should happily resume her wonted place in the universe, or a much larger one. I accordingly assured him sincerely that there was no sight on earth that would give me greater pleasure than the sight of a woman, and that I should await the result of the ballot on Monday with feverish impatience. “But you need not wait the result of the ballot,” said Mr. Lister, “for the women have given notice that they will pass in procession through the town to-morrow afternoon.” “Do you really mean that the women are going to parade?” I asked, aghast at this unexpected novelty. “Well,” replied Mr. Lister, “I suppose it might be called a parade, though that term usually carries the idea of a noisy and sensational display, and there will be none of this in the women’s passage through the town. Drums, trumpets, banners, inscriptions, uniforms, speeches, and all the paraphernalia of customary parades will be conspicuously absent. Clothed in their ordinary garb, the women will exhibit nothing but themselves, in simple, critical sincerity. Before the ballots are cast they deem it to be both just and proper that man should see, in a simple panorama, exactly the condition of woman as it has been up to to-day. To-morrow will be Sunday, but as there are no church services the women think it the most proper time for them to walk quietly through the town.” Again it seemed to me that I must be dreaming. Mobs there might have been in history of women clamouring for bread in some oppressed and king-ridden city, but the organization of all the women of Free America into one vast Sisterhood, and their peaceful, speechless procession through streets lined with homes which they had so lately occupied with men, and of which they had been the beacon, was a thought calculated to fill one with speculative awe! But there were still many things concerning the Strike which I did not understand, and about which I wished to be fully informed before I should witness any such public exhibition. Accordingly, as Mr. Lister was at leisure that afternoon, I gave myself wholly to the task of learning all that I could about this strange situation of the sexes. And first I said: