'What do you mean?' cried he.
'My lord,' said I, 'are you quite, quite certain that you have lost them?'
'See yourself,' cried he, lifting his lip. 'They are gone, gone for ever!'
'They are indeed,' said I. 'And now you may be gone too.'
'Ha! what mean you?' cried he.
'My lord,' said I, 'of this you must be conscious, that a complete set of teeth are absolutely indispensible to a hero.'
'Well?' cried he, starting.
'Well,' said I, 'having lost two of your's, you must be conscious that you are no longer a hero.'
'You stretch my heart-strings!' cried he. 'Speak! what hideous whim is this?'
'No whim, my lord,' answered I; 'but principle, and founded on law heroic; founded on that law, which rejects as heroes, the maimed, the blind, the deformed, and the crippled. Trust me, my good lord, teeth are just as necessary in the formation of a hero as a comb.'