To appeal, to obtain, to destroy--was not that the mission of her sex? And yet so long had women been burden-bearers, deprived of initiative by the master’s rein and hoppled by the ultimate of man-made laws, that even he who so sorely needed them, had failed to appreciate their suppressed power. Never would they come into their own until they learned that their capability lay, not in trying to be what they were not, but in being essentially and ruthlessly what they were. “Ah, wrigglier than a she-cobra’s wriggle is the female of my dreams!” Glowing from that ruddy mist of concentration which once before Dolores had seen, His Highness warmed to his thought. “If all the anarchists in my incubators were matured, they’d be a puny menace to society and the State as compared with women let loose. Take the punitive laws from any class and what is the result? Riot, bestiality, sin. Fear is what has held women down. Take away fear and what will they do? They’ll master the men. Once give ’em license and they’ll soon make up for their enforced virtue of the past. The fact that they do not originate is their best-worst trait--saves a lot of energy. Why, when I contemplate their daring, their imperviousness to pain, their concentration through heredity upon the meaner issues; when I allow myself to imagine the deafening pop of the bottled-up indignities poured upon them in the past--_Whew!_ I, the First and Last, shudder in humility over my virtues. This I give you as a prophecy: To the female of the species is the victory of vice.” Dolores was lifted above fear for herself by fear for womankind. “For shame!” she cried. “Shame? What is that?” “What I feel for you, Your--Your Lowness.” “Good! I _must_ be getting bad. It is well that you pay me an out-loud compliment now and then, when I’m paying you with the utmost of my unlimited power. You encourage me to proceed. Although I don’t wish you to doff your gentle ways--they’ll serve as a model for your she-destroyers--you must keep clearly in mind that our chief emotion down here is hate--immortal hate.” “Hate immortal? I find it hard to think of such a thing. I am sure that I never could hate for long. On Earth, I might stay angry with some one through the day, but I couldn’t go to sleep until I forgave.” His Majesty scowled down at her, evidently disturbed. “It’s all right to look that idea. Of course you don’t feel it. You certainly must hate these earthlings you’re telling us about.” “You are wrong. I don’t hate them. Somehow I can’t hate any of them.” With a catch of breath, she added: “If you said immortal love, now----” “Tut, tut, my child. Isn’t it hot enough down here? Don’t heat up my imagination.” “But didn’t you ever feel love for anybody?”