They were absorbed, as if in eager study of a theme.
"Yes, yes, that's it; and if he has it, what next ?" said he meaningly.
"Well, then, opportunity, joined to coolness, knowledge of men, power of combination, strategy, and"-- she paused, and a purely feminine curiosity impelled her to add suggestively--"and a woman." He nodded.

"And a woman," he repeated after her musingly, and not turning it to account cavalierly, as he might have done.

He was taking himself with a simple seriousness that appealed to her.
"You may put strategy out of the definition, leaving in the woman," she continued ironically.
He felt the point, and her demure dart struck home.

But he saw what an ally she might make.

Tremendous possibilities moved before him.