"Well then," said I, "since I may not be a bird, what say you to a fish?"
"I cannot abide 'em, save broiled, and with sauce," she said.
"Then may the broiling I shall suffer this day, and the sauce of good hard knocks, bring me to the top of your good favour," said I. "But, indeed, I swim like a fish, and dive like a duck——"
"Or a goose?" she caught me up.
"But with no quackery," said I, "I heaved myself up to my window-sill—
"Then you should have been trussed," she said.
"Nay, madam, the trust is yours," said I; "and from the sill I leapt into your lake, and so got myself, somewhat damp and muddied, to the further shore."
"And without a wound?" she said, catching at her breath.
"Save in my heart," I said in a low voice.
"What! hath any Englishman a heart?" she said; and then as I glanced at the frowning dame beside her, she cried right merrily—