you're going to win. No, don't get up. Before you keep on, I want to
tell you something about myself--about what I believe with all my soul.
I don't have to tell you that I'm a good woman; you know it. The first
time you saw me dance you were rather disgusted, weren't you? I nodded.
'What do you think of my dancing now?"

"I remember my answer to that. It was: 'You possess people gradually,
you hold them forever. It's more than personality with you, it's power.'

"Her eyes were fastened on me. They drew mine. 'That's right,' she said;
'look at me. I want you to look at me. You see I'm an ugly woman.' I
cried out in protest, and I meant it. Her face went suddenly hard. 'You
fool,' she said, 'say that I'm pretty--say it now!' And I cried out at
her, 'Not when you look like that. But you can assume beauty. You know
it.'

"She seemed to pause in her thoughts at that and smiled. 'Can I--for
you?' she asked in a way that made her divine. Then she jerked herself
back. 'I'm an ugly woman. My body is wonderful. Look!' She raised her
long arms, which were bare, gave a half-turn, and glanced at me over her
shoulder. An apparently simple movement, but it was consummate in grace
and display. 'You see?' she said, with a flashing smile. Then she turned
and stood stolidly. 'I didn't have a body worth speaking of once. What
I've got I made--every bit of it.'

"She sat down sidewise on a chair, folded her arms on the back of it,
and looked at me over them. 'I have that power you were speaking of. Do
you know just in what consists a woman's power over a man? I'll tell
you: in keeping eternally just one thing that he wants.'