THE PARLIAMENT OF WOMEN. 203

“Eye of the potter-moulded lamp, with whom
Are shared the kindred honours of the sun,
Let thus the splendour of thy faithful flame
The sign concerted show. Faithful thou art,
Knowing, yet not betraying; to thine eye
Our toilet’s secrets are revealed; thy help
Is given, yet given in silence, when we take
Toll from the treasuries of food and wine;
Share, then, O lamp, the counsels of to-day.

“But how is this?” she went on, looking round
about, “I don’t see one of the friends whom I ex-
pected, although it is almost dawn, and the Assembly
will soon be meeting. We must fill up the places
first. Have they not been able to get the beards,
or have they found it too hard to steal the men’s
clothes? Butstay—Iseealamp approaching. I will
just step out of the way in case it should be a man.”

And now a number of women appeared. One
declared that the cock did but crow the second time
as she left her house; another said that her husband
had been ill all night from having eaten too many
pilchards, and that he had only just fallen asleep; a
third had stood in the sun all the day before to give
- herself a manly brown; a fourth showed a formida-
ble club which she had secured. A thrifty dame,
who thought it would be well to save time by spin-
ning while the place of Assembly was filling, incurred
a severe rebuke, though she pleaded that she could
listen’ just as well while she was at work, and that
her poor children had nothing to put on. To spin