Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/209

198 "Oh, believe me, fair women are not so enamoured of the ugliness of death; and—as for the rest—she has gone very far for the sake of public liberty; she will scarce grudge a good price for personal freedom. Not know Idalia? Altro! I don't think, with all your title to her confidence, that you know her very thoroughly yourself. Perhaps she will treat with Villaflor de couronne à couronne. We are playing a losing game; she will have the tact of her sex and go over to the stronger side. She is far more fit for courts than conspiracies. She could make good terms, I have little doubt, and I would back her to match the bishop in subtlety,—I could scarcely give as much praise to any one else in Europe."

"You mean that"

"That she will forsake us and coalesce with the royalties. All women are rakes at heart, as Pope says, and he should have given an alliterative line to it, all women are royalists. They may talk liberalism, but they are Optimates to the core, and adore a despot, public or private. Madame de Vassalis will see herself in imminent danger; she will barter herself and her knowledge and her power to buy her emancipation. Not a doubt of it. She is a republican; she is of the advanced school; she is of us—oh yes! but she is a woman of the world,