"
"You express your thanks in your sweetest tones, and I forget my
wounds."
"Sweet tones do no harm, if they are accompanied with salves and
ointment."
"In short, I am obliged to carry my arm in a sling for three months
after."
"Is that not rather long?"
"No; because your arm, in some sort, supplies, meantime, the place of
mine."
"Your picture has, at least, the merit of being poetic. Is it
finished?"
"Not till next New Year's Day, when you present me with an embroidered
scarf, as the ladies of yore used to do to the knights that defended
them from dragons and that sort of thing."
"What a pity all this should be only a dream!"
"Well, I am not particularly extravagant, at all events; others dream
of fortune, honor, and glory."
"Whilst you confine your aspirations to a bear, a bite, and a scarf."
"You see nothing was wanted but the opportunity."
"And foresight."
"Foresight?"
"Yes; if you had previously made arrangements with a bear, the whole
scene might have been realized."
"You are joking, whilst I am taking the matter _au serieux_."
"That order is usually reversed; generally you are the quiz and I am
the quizzee."
"You will admit, at all events, that I would not have permitted the
bear to eat you."
Here Sophia burst into a peal of laughter, and vanished with her
gazelle.
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