“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.  Eugenie 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.”

“A woman here,” said the commandant, “is a slave.”

“A good woman, I grant you,” said the lawyer, “but a bad woman, if she chance to be beautiful, is an empress.  Do you know how many men it takes to officer a mosque of the first class, such a one as we have here?  Twelve,” and he dropped the cards and began to count his fingers.  “Two mueddins the chaps that call to prayer; two tolbas who read the litanies; two hezzabin, who read the Koran; a mufti who interprets the law; a khetib who recites the prayer for the chief of the government each Friday, and who is very unpopular; an iman who reads the five daily prayers; a chaouch who is a secretary to the last of the list, the oukil who collects the funds and pays them out.  The oukil is the man who governs the mosque.  He is the man in the green turban whom you saw talking with Mirza.  They are partners.  He attends to the world, she to the flesh, and both to the devil.  It is a strong partnership.  It is what, in America, they call a ‘trust.’  The oukil sends his clients to Mirza, and she sends hers to the oukil.  Look out of the window again.  There are three thousand religionists who have passed through the hands of the oukil and Mirza, and she, making the most money, has the last word.  Do you ask, now, why she is the most powerful person in Biskra?”

“It seems,” said the commandant, “that it is because she is a woman, and is bad.”

“And beautiful,” added the lawyer.

“Do you think her beautiful?” asked the commandant.