“So much for the griffin’s soup!” thought he.
He waited patiently for some time, when the griffiness, waving her claw from the window, said cheerfully, “All’s right, my dear Reynard; my papa has finished his soup, and sleeps as sound as a rock! All the noise in the world would not wake him now, till he has slept off the boiled cat, which won’t be these twelve hours. Come and assist me in packing up the treasure; I should be sorry to leave a single diamond behind.”
“So should I,” quoth the fox. “Stay, I’ll come round by the lower hole: why, the door’s shut! pray, beautiful griffiness, open it to thy impatient adorer.”
“Alas, my father has hid the key! I never know where he places it. You must come up by the basket; see, I will lower it for you.”
The fox was a little loth to trust himself in the same conveyance that had taken his mistress to be boiled; but the most cautious grow rash when money’s to be gained, and avarice can trap even a fox. So he put himself as comfortably as he could into the basket, and up he went in an instant. It rested, however, just before it reached the window, and the fox felt, with a slight shudder, the claw of the griffiness stroking his back.
“Oh, what a beautiful coat!” quoth she, caressingly.
“You are too kind,” said the fox; “but you can feel it more at your leisure when I am once up. Make haste, I beseech you.”
“Oh, what a beautiful bushy tail! Never did I feel such a tail.”
“It is entirely at your service, sweet griffiness,” said the fox; “but pray let me in. Why lose an instant?”
“No, never did I feel such a tail! No wonder you are so successful with the ladies.”