“And I tell you now, gentlemen,” he concluded, “as you know very well yourselves, that this woman, here in Washington, would hold the match ready to apply to that magazine.  Which of you does not see its glimmering?  Which of you doubts her readiness?  There was not twenty-four hours to argue the matter of her—­her temporary absence.  We’d have had Austria all about our ears, otherwise.  Gentlemen, I am mild as any, and most of any I am sworn to obey the laws, and to guarantee the safeguards of the Constitution; but I say to you—­” and here his hand came down with an emphasis unusual in his nature—­“law or no law, Constitution or no Constitution, an exigency existed under which she had to leave Washington, and that upon that very night.”

“But where is she now?” ventured another voice.  “This young army captain simply says in his report that he left her on the Mount Vernon packet, en route down the Ohio.  Where is she now; and how long before she will be back here, match in hand?”

“It is the old, old case of Eve!” sighed one, who leaned a bony arm upon the walnut, and who spoke in the soft accents which proclaimed him of the South.  “Woman!  It is only the old Garden over again.  Trouble, thy name is Woman!”

“And specifically, its name is Josephine, Countess St. Auban!” drawled another, opposite.  A smile went around among these grave and dignified men; indeed, a light laugh sounded somewhere in the shadow.  The face of the leader relaxed, though not sufficiently to allow light comment.  The dark man at the right spoke.

“The great Napoleon was right,” said he.  “He never ceased to prove how much he dreaded woman at any juncture of public affairs.  Indeed, he said that all the public places of the government should be closed to them, that they should be set apart and distinguished from the managers of affairs.”

“And so do we say it!” broke in the leader.  “With all my heart, I say it.”

The tall man bowed, “It was the idea of Napoleon that woman should be distinguished always by a veil and gown, a uniform of unworthiness and of danger.  True, Napoleon based his ideas on his studies in the Orient.  Us he accused of treating woman much too well.  He declared woman, by virtue of her birth, to be made as man’s inferior and his slave, and would tolerate no other construction of the relation of the sexes.  According to Napoleon, women tyrannize over us Americans, whereas we should tyrannize over them.  It was plain, in his conception, that the main province of woman is in making fools of men.”

“In some ways, Napoleon was a thoughtful man,” remarked, a voice to the left; and once more a half subdued smile went around.

“I yield to no man in my admiration for the fair sex—­” began the tall, dark man.  The smile broke into open laughter.  The leader rapped sharply on the table edge, frowning.  The tall man bowed once more, as he resumed.