“Well!” said the Elderly Spinster Spider, for it was she, “What do you want?” This was not a very polite greeting, but Tibbs thought it as well to humour her, so he said—
“Nothing, Madame——”
“Miss!” corrected the Elderly Spinster Spider, folding two legs across her chest.
“Miss,” repeated Tibbs, “I want nothing but a glance into your eyes, for they are said to be the brightest gems in the Taj Mahal.”
“Rubbish!” exclaimed the Elderly Spinster Spider, but she carefully combed her eyebrows with the comb on her third left leg.
“It is also said,” continued Tibbs, “that you have the kindest heart in all Spiderland, preferring rather to remain single than to marry and be obliged to eat up your husband!” (Tibbs had read somewhere that this was the usual custom amongst lady Spiders.)
“Don’t talk of husbands to me!” said the Elderly Spinster Spider, “the shy, undersized, nervous, shamefaced things! Ugh! I wouldn’t eat one if there wasn’t a fly left in India!”
“Tender-hearted creature!” murmured Tibbs.
“Not that I haven’t had my little flirtations!” sighed the Elderly Spinster Spider, combing her spinnerettes, “but I always stopped before it came to eating the beasts. I think men-spiders taste horrid! I nibbled the leg of one I was rather fond of once, just to see!”
After this heart-to-heart confession, the Elderly Spinster Spider sighed again, and her eyes grew dreamy.