"Mirza?" exclaimed the commandant.
"Yes," said the lawyer. "The centre of affairs, since the world was sent spinning, has always been a woman. Who placed the primal curse of labor on the race? Was it the man, Adam, or the woman, Eve?"
"As I remember," said the commandant, "the serpent was the prime mover in that affair."
"Yes," said the lawyer; "but being 'more subtile than any beast in the field,' he knew that if he caught the woman the man would follow of his own accord. Julius Caesar and Antony were dwarfed by Cleopatra. Helen of Troy set the world ablaze. Joan of Arc saved France. Catharine I saved Peter the Great. Catharine II made Russia. Marie Antoinette ruled Louis XVI and lost a crown and her head. Fat Anne of England and Sarah Jennings united England and Scotland. Eugénie and the milliners lost Alsace and Lorraine. Victoria made her country the mistress of the world. I have named many women who have played great parts in this drama which we call life. How many of them were good women? By 'good' I do not mean virtuous, but simply 'good.'"
"Out of your list," said the commandant, "I should name Joan of Arc and
Victoria."
"A woman," repeated the lawyer, "is the centre of every affair. When you go back to France, what are you looking forward to?"
"My wife's kiss," said the commandant. "And you, since you are a bachelor?"
"The scolding of my housekeeper," said the lawyer, and he shrugged his shoulders.
The commandant laughed. "But what of Mirza?" he asked. "Why is she so powerful?"
"For the same reason that your wife and my housekeeper are powerful," said the lawyer; "she is a woman."