All vigorous men were now going to the battlefield, and the others were working in industrial centers which had been converted into workshops of war.

And this general activity was also taking in the women who were devoting their labor to factories and hospitals, or their intelligence on the other side of the frontiers, to the service of their country.
Ferragut, surprised by this outright revelation, remained silent, but finally ventured to formulate his thought.
"According to that, you are a spy ?"...
She heard the word with contempt.

That was an antiquated term which had lost its primitive significance.

Spies were those who in other times,--when only the professional soldiers took part in war,--had mixed themselves in the operations voluntarily or for money, surprising the preparations of the enemy.

Nowadays, with the mobilization of the nations _en masse_, the old official spy--a contemptible and villainous creature, daring death for money--had practically disappeared.