"Which?"
'"Vous êtes, mon lion!'"
"That was how I wrote it, madame; so I think it is all right."
"Then you stick to your lion?"
"I may or may not, madame. If you can find something better, I will insert it instead."
"It is not my place to do so; I am not the author."
"Very well, then, madame; if that be so, leave what is written exactly as you find it."
"Really it does sound to me very comic to call M. Firmin mon lion!"
"Oh! that is because while acting the part of Doña Sol you think of yourself as Mademoiselle Mars. If you were a true pupil of Ruy Gomez de Sylva, a noble Castilian of the sixteenth century, you would only see Hernani in M. Firmin; you would look upon him as a terrible robber-chief, who made even Charles V. tremble in his capital; then you would comprehend how such a woman could call such a man son lion, and you would no longer look upon it as comic!"
"Very well! if you stick to your lion we will say no more. It is my duty to say what is written, and as the manuscript has 'mon lion!' I will say 'mon lion!' Of course, it is all one to me. Let us go on, Firmin!