“Take the eight hour day, for instance.  It doesn’t apply to women at all—­I mean house women.  And nearly half the people are house women.  It doesn’t apply to farmers, either; and more than a quarter of the people in America are on farms.  But you don’t condemn the eight hour day—­do you?—­just because it doesn’t fit everybody?”

“A four hour day!” repeated the first leader, still speaking in tones of awe.

“If that wouldn’t make labour happy,” said the second, “I don’t know what would.”

“Myself, I’d like to see it tried out somewhere,” said the third.  “It sounds possible—­the way Miss Spencer puts it—­but will it work?”

“That’s the very thing to find out,” said Mary, “and it won’t take long.”

She told them about the model bungalows.

“I intended to try it with twenty-five families first,” she said, taking a list from her desk.  “Here are the names of a hundred women working here, whose husbands are among the strikers.  I thought that out of these hundred families, I might be able to find twenty-five who would be willing to try the experiment.”

The three callers looked at each other and then they nodded approval.

“So while we’re having lunch,” she said, “I’ll send these women out to find their husbands, and we’ll talk to them altogether.”

It was half past one when Mary entered the rest room with her three visitors and Archey.  Nearly all the women had found their men, and they were waiting with evident curiosity.

As simply as she could, Mary repeated the plan which she had outlined to the leaders.

“So there you are,” she said in conclusion.  “I want to find twenty-five families to give the idea a trial.  They will live in those new bungalows—­you have probably all seen them.

“There’s a gas range in each to make cooking easy.  They have steam heat from the factory—­no stoves—­no coal—­no ashes to bother with.  There’s electric light, refrigerator, bathroom, hot and cold water—­everything I could think of to save labour and make housework easy.

“Now, Mrs. Strauss, suppose you and your husband decide to try this new arrangement.  You would both come here and work till twelve o’clock, and the afternoons you would have to yourselves.

“In the afternoons you could go shopping, or fishing, or walking, or boating, or skating, or visiting, or you could take up a course of study, or read a good book, or go to the theatre, or take a nap, or work in your garden—­anything you liked....

“In short, after twelve o’clock, the whole day would be your own—­for your own development, your own pleasure, your own ideas—­anything you wanted to use it for.  Do you understand it, Mrs. Strauss?”

“Indeed I do.  I think it’s fine.”

“Is Mr. Strauss here?  Does he understand it?”

“Yes, I understand it,” said a voice among the men.  Assisted by his neighbours he arose.  “I’m to work four hours a day,” he said, “and so’s the wife.  Instead of drawing full money, I draw half and she draws half.  We’d have to chip in on the family expenses.  Every day is to be like Saturday—­work in the morning and the afternoon off.  Suits me to a dot, if it suits her.  I always did think Saturday was the one sensible day in the week.”