"Oh--ah--then. In that case, you see," said the duke, relapsing, "the principle has always been to take the goods the gods may send you, and be thankful." There was a pause after this, during which the duke again recollected himself. "We were talking about women," he sternly recommenced, "and I was warning you that their wiles are snares of the evil one, who finds them ever ready to carry out his worst behests. Women are bad." "Are they, now?" said Diavolo. "Well, I should have thought, taking them all round, you know, that they're a precious sight better than _we_ are." "It was a woman, my boy," the duke said solemnly, "who compassed the fall of man." "Well," Diavolo rejoined, with a calmly judicial air, "I've thought a good deal about that story myself, and it doesn't seem to me to prove that women are weak, but rather the contrary. For you see, the woman could tempt the man easily enough; but it took the very old devil himself to tempt the woman." "Humph!" said the duke, looking hard at his grandson. "And, at any rate," Diavolo pursued, "it happened a good while ago, that business, and it's just as likely as not that it was Adam whom the devil first put up to a thing or two, and Eve got it out of him--for I grant you that women are curious--and then they both came a cropper together, and it was a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other. It mostly is, I should think, in a business of that kind." "Well, yes," said the duke. "In my own experience, I always found that we were just about one as bad as the other"--and he chuckled. "Then, we may conclude that there is a doubt about that Garden of Eden story whichever way you look at it, and it's too old for an argument at any rate," said Diavolo. "But there is no doubt about the redemption. It was a woman who managed that little affair. And, altogether, it seems to me, in spite of the disadvantage of being classed by law with children, lunatics, beggars, and irresponsible people generally, that, in the matter of who have done most good in the world, women come out a long chalk ahead of us." "Why the devil don't you speak English, sir!" the duke burst out testily. Diavolo started. "Good gracious, grandpapa!" he began with his customary deliberation, "how sudden you are! You quite made me jump. Is it the slang you don't like?" "Yes sir, it _is_ the slang I don't like." "Then you've only got to say so," said Diavolo in a tone of mild remonstrance. "You really quite upset me when you're so sudden. Angelica will tell you I never could stand being startled. She's tried all kinds of things to cure me. You can't frighten me, you know. It's just the jump I object to." "Oh, you object, do you?" said the duke, bending his brows upon him. "Then I apologise." "Oh, no! pray don't mention it, sir," said Diavolo. "I didn't mean you to go so far as that, you know. And it's over in a minute."