"How can I help knowing?"
"But I don't understand the title. Where does the 'oiseau'[16] come in?"
[16] The Hungarian oáza (oasis) and the French oiseau are pronounced so very much alike, that the ill-instructed Bessy, who had never heard of the former, not unnaturally confounded them.
I explained to her that the "oáz" was not a flying fowl, but a plot of verdure concealed in the desert.
"Then why don't you write 'island'?"
She was right there.
"Apropos of island," she continued, "I often see you from the verandah of our island summer-house walking up and down in front of our garden; yet you never give us so much as a glance, though we make noise enough."
"That is quite possible. At such times I am immersed."
"Immersed in what?"
"In working at my romance."