think that in her place she would
refuse this one less readily than another.

They were long in preparing the blockade, as if against an invested
fortress. Each one agreed upon the part they would play, the arguments
they would bring forward, the maneuvers they would execute. They
arranged the plan of attack, the stratagems to be employed, and the
surprises of the assault for forcing this living citadel to receive the
enemy within its gates. Cornudet alone held aloof, completely outside
the affair.

They were so profoundly occupied with the matter in hand that they never
heard Boule de Suif enter the room. But the Count breathed a low warning
"Hush!" and they lifted their heads. She was there. The talking ceased
abruptly, and a certain feeling of embarrassment prevented them from
addressing her at first, till the Countess, more versed than the others
in the duplicities of the drawing-room, asked how she had enjoyed the
christening.

Still full of emotion at what she had witnessed, Boule de Suif described
every detail--the people's faces, their attitudes, even the appearance
of the church. It was so nice to pray now and then, she added.

Till luncheon, however, the ladies confined themselves merely to being
agreeable to her in order to increase her confidence in them and her
docility to their counsels. But once seated at the table, the attack
began. It first took the form of a desultory conversation on devotion to
a cause. Examples from ancient history were cited: Judith and
Holofernes, and then, without any apparent connection, Lucretia and
Sextus, Cleopatra admitting to her couch all the hostile generals, and
reducing them to the servility of slaves. Then began a fantastic
history, which had sprung up in the minds of these ignorant
millionaires, in which the women of Rome were seen on their way to
Capua, to rock Hannibal to sleep in their arms, and his officers along
with him, and the phalanxes of the mercenaries. The women were mentioned
who had arrested the course of conquerors, made of their bodies a
rampart, a means of dominating, a weapon; who had vanquished by their
heroic embraces beings hideous or repulsive, and sacrificed their
chastity to vengeance or patriotism.

And all this in so discreet and moderate a manner, with now and then a
little burst of warm enthusiasm, admirably calculated to excite
emulation. To hear them you would have finally come to the conclusion
that woman's sole mission here below w