Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/108

Rh would be, as weakly slaves of any other who succeeded me, and as easily subjugated by a courtesan as they were by me, when I chose to use the power, I thought very scornfully of love. I saw its baser side, and I held it a madness of men by which women could revenge a thousand-fold the penalties of sex that shut us out from public share in the world's government. A statesman is great, a woman can make him a wittol; a chíef is mighty, a woman can make him a byword of shame and reproach; a soldier has honour firm as steel, a woman can make him break it like a stalk of green flax; a poet has genius to gain him immortality, a woman can make him curse the world and its fame for her sake, and die like a dog, raving mad for the loss of scarlet lips that were false, of eyes divine that were lies. No power! We have the widest of all! Well, I but knew that better than most, and used it yet more unmercifully than most. And I think what gave that power tenfold into my hands was that one fact—that the weakness of love never for one instant touched me myself, that the temptations of love never tempted me for an instant, that my intellect alone dealt with them, and my heart remained ever cold."

"And it has wakened for me? How is it possible?