‘I don’t think I shall,’ said his lordship; ‘it is such a bore.’
‘It is rather a bore; but he is a good fellow.’
‘I shall go,’ said Count Mirabel.
‘You are not afraid of being bored,’ said Ferdinand, smiling.
‘Between ourselves, I do not understand what this being bored is,’ said the Count. ‘He who is bored appears to me a bore. To be bored supposes the inability of being amused; you must be a dull fellow. Wherever I may be, I thank heaven that I am always diverted.’
‘But you have such nerves, Mirabel,’ said Lord Catchimwhocan. ‘By Jove! I envy you. You are never floored.’
‘Floored! what an idea! What should floor me? I live to amuse myself, and I do nothing that does not amuse me. Why should I be floored?’
‘Why, I do not know; but every other man is floored now and then. As for me, my spirits are sometimes something dreadful.’
‘When you have been losing.’
‘Well, we cannot always win. Can we, Sharpe? That would not do. But, by Jove! you are always in good humour, Mirabel, when you lose.’