"This scaly devil approached you while you sang?"
"Thanks for the implied compliment, M. Oliver; I hope you found my voice more musical than the serpent did?"
"Its echo shall linger in my ears and heart for ever."
Madame coloured, and laughing said,—
"M. le Viscount de Chateaubriand (who writes so charmingly) told me, that three years ago, on the banks of the Genesse, in Upper Canada, he saw the anger of a most ferocious snake appeased by the music of a common flute on which was played "Vive Henri Quatre."
"Depend upon it, that snake must have been an aristocrat."
"True; what music would have appeased a republican!"
"And now, madame, with a thousand grateful thanks for your——"
"Do not say kindness or hospitality, I beg of you."
"What then?"