"Then your compliments to me are only boomerangs."
"Boomerangs only return when they miss."
The storm abating, they moved up the mountain, talking gaily. Mrs. Arson and her children kept considerately in the rear with their guide. Helene admired Lassalle's stick. He handed it to her.
"It was Robespierre's. Förster the historian gave it me. That repoussé gold-work on the handle is of course the Bastille."
"How appropriate!" she laughed.
"Which? The Bastille to the stick, or the stick to me?"
"Both."
He grew serious.
"What would you do if I lost my head?"
"I should stand by till your head was severed in order that you might look on your beloved to the last. Then I should take poison."