"Count," says Mangogul to Hannetillon, "then you have been particularly acquainted with Cynara?"
"Sir," answered Velvet-Paw, "who doubts, it? He has walk'd with her for more moons than one? they have been song'd; and all this would have lasted to this day, if he had not at length discovered that she was not handsome, and that she had a large mouth." "Allowed," replied Hannetillon; "but that imperfection was ballanced by an uncommon agreeableness."
"How long since this adventure?" ask'd the prude Orphisa. "Madam," replied Hannetillon, "its epoch is not present to my memory. I must have recourse to the chronological tables of my good fortune. There may be seen the day and minute: but 'tis a large volume, with which my servants amuse themselves in the antichamber."
"Hold," says Alciphenor; "I recollect that it was precisely a year after Grifgrif fell out with Madam la Seneschale. She has the memory of an angel, and can tell you exactly."—"That nothing is more false than your date," answered the Seneschal's lady gravely. "'Tis well known that blockheads were never of my taste." "Yet, madam," replied Alciphenor, "you will never persuade us, that Marmolin was excessively wise, when he was conducted into your appartment by the back stairs, whenever his highness summoned the Seneschal to council." "There can be no greater extravagance in my opinion," added Velvet-Paw, "than to enter into a woman's chamber by stealth, for nothing at all; for people thought nothing more of his visits than what was really fact, and madam was already in full enjoyment of that reputation of virtue, which she has so well supported since that time."
"But that is an age ago," says Fadaes. "It was pretty much about that same time that Zulica made a slip from the Selictar, who was her humble servant, to take possession of Grifgrif, whom she drop'd six months after; she is now got as far as Fortimbek. I am not sorry for my friend's little stroke of good luck; I see her, I admire her, but entirely without any pretensions."
"Yet Zulica," says the favorite, "is very amiable. She has wit, taste, and something, I know not how, engaging in her countenance, which I should prefer to charms." "I grant that, madam," answer'd Fadaes: "but she is maigre, has no neck, and her thigh is so skinny, that it raises one's pity."
"You are well acquainted with it, to be sure," added the Sultana. "Oh! madam," replied Hannetillon, "you may guess that. I have visited Zulica but seldom, and yet I know as much of that affair as Fadaes." "I can easily believe you," says the favorite.
"But à propos, might one ask Grifgrif," says the Selictar, "if he has been long in possession of Zirphila. There is what you may call a pretty woman. She has an admirable shape." "And who doubts it!" added Marmolin.
"How happy is the Selictar," continued Fadaes. "I give you Fadaes," interrupted the Selictar, "for the best provided gallant of the court. To my knowledge he has the Visir's wife, the two prettiest actresses of the opera, and an adorable Grisette, whom he keeps in his private lodge." "And I," replied Fadaes, "would give up the Visir's wife, the two actresses and the Grisette, for one glance from a certain woman, with whom the Selictar is very well, and who has not the least suspicion that the world knows it;" and then stepping up to Leocris, says, "your blushes are ravishing.——"
"Hannetillon was a long time wavering," says Marmolin, "between Melissa and Fatima, two charming women. One day he was for Melissa the fair, the next for Fatima the nut-brown." "The poor man," continues Fadaes, "was strangely embarassed: why did he not take them both?" "So he did," says Alciphenor.