id the lawyer.

"I see the mosque," said the commandant, "with its lamps burning."

"There you have it," cried the lawyer. "This religion that you and I
are sent to conquer keeps its lamps burning constantly, while the
religion that comes to conquer lights its candles only for the mass.
Mankind loves light and warmth. What do you see now?"

"I see Mirza," replied the commandant; "she is walking up the centre
line of the fires. Now she stops. She meets a man, draws him hurriedly
aside, and is speaking close to his ear."

"Has he a green turban?" asked the lawyer. "Has he been to Mecca?"

"Yes," answered the commandant.

"There you see the most powerful person in Biskra," said the
counsellor.

"Who?" asked the commandant. "The man in the green turban?"

"No," said the lawyer, "the woman he is speaking to."

"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. 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 woma