“Of that,” replied Mr. Lister, “we have no certain means of judging. Nor does it, indeed, concern the principle of justice involved. _Fiat justitia ruat cælum._ But if woman is really given her freedom, her innate instincts will undoubtedly expand naturally and strongly, and certainly the desire for children is strongly implanted in her. But her children from this time forward, if she ever has any, will be only children which are desired, and to the bearing of which she has joyfully consented. This simple condition alone must mark the beginning of a new race.” As at many times before during the last two days, I could scarcely persuade myself that I was not dreaming. The discovery of this astounding separation between the sexes, the strange intelligence that woman, by a simple edict of her own, had solved the social evil and swept it summarily into the limbo of the abominations of the past, and now this undreamed of right to say whether she should bear children or not! I knew not what to say; the world seemed turned to sudden and inexplicable chaos; a thousand difficulties and perplexities presented themselves to my mind, and I was about to excuse myself and go out into the street to cool my heated brain, when a dull, heavy alarm bell sounded in the town. “It is fire,” said Mr. Lister, springing from his chair. “Good God! what if it should be among the buildings occupied by the women!” Even as he spoke there came the sound of the swelling, hurrying rush and tread that springs up in the track of a dread ravager. We rushed tumultuously into the street. [Illustration] CHAPTER VIII. I had known the terror that seizes upon the heart at the sudden alarm of devastating fires before. I had been awakened by such alarms from a peaceful sleep at midnight. I had felt rather than heard the dull vibration of heavy axes beating in barred doors to break an entrance into buildings where fierce fires were raging. Through the rents made by frenzied blows, I had caught intermittent gleams of licking tongues of fire curling upward with devouring eagerness. I had heard the blood-curdling cries of the watchmen. I had witnessed the mad galloping of the engines. I had seen the dismay of the terrified occupants of burning buildings suddenly shaken from sound slumber, and rushing almost naked into the streets. None of these things were strange to me, and still I trust I may never know again the sickening, contagious terror I felt when I reached the street and knew that the fire was located in the buildings which the women had chosen for their retreat. No one told me this. I instinctively felt it the moment I joined the throng of hatless, coatless, pale-faced men who were hurrying with frantic, but speechless haste toward the bridge which led to the women’s home. All the treasures of the earth were but as dust compared with those that were in jeopardy on that hill-side.