"Ah well!" said Zerbine, "it will be for another time then. I shall
put it away in my strong box, and keep it for you, like a faithful
treasurer."
"But surely you haven't abandoned the poor marquis," said Blazius,
rather reproachfully. "Of course I know there was no question of his
giving you up; you are not one of that sort. The role of Ariadne
would not suit you at all; you are a Circe. Yet he is a splendid young
nobleman-handsome, wealthy, amiable, and not wanting in wit."
"Oh! I haven't given him up; very far from it," Zerbine replied, with a
saucy smile. "I shall guard him carefully, as the most precious gem in
my casket. Though I have quitted him for the moment, he will shortly
follow me."
"Fugax sequax, sequax fugax," the pedant rejoined; "these four Latin
words, which have a cabalistic sound, not unlike the croaking of certain
batrachians, and might have been borrowed, one would say, from the
'Comedy of the Frogs,' by one Aristophanes, an Athenian poet, contain
the very pith and marrow of all theories of love and lovemaking; they
would make a capital rule to regulate everybody's conduct--of the virile
as well as of the fair sex."
"And what under the sun do your fine Latin words mean, you pompous old
pedant?" asked Zerbine.
Pages:
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252