He need only have stretched his arms a wee bit more to burst the whole skein to pieces, but he has learnt to watch very carefully lest the thread gets entangled, and he laughs heartily every time he moves his hands clumsily, at the same time begging pardon and promising to do better in future.
"My darling, I have an old sword—it served me well in the French war—do you think it would be of any use to you?"
The little lady laughed, and how charmingly she could laugh; it sounded like the bells of a glass harmonica striking against each other.
"I understand the allusion. If you can use the owner of the sword for unwinding thread, you might use his sword instead of scissors."
"I mean what I say."
"That doesn't matter a bit, you must wait till the skein is unwound."
"Naturally that is as it should be, of course. Nor would I suffer anybody else to take my place. To hold a skein of thread requires great strength of mind, not every man is up to it. A giddy head would very soon give way beneath the task. It is a science in itself. Besides, I swore before the parson I would take you 'for better or worse.' You see how I keep my word. Look there now! The thread has tied itself into a knot again. Now, if one of your parlour-maids had been holding it, you would have been angry with her, but as my darling little wife it is not lawful for you to be angry. Do you hear me? It is not lawful for you to be angry with me, I say."
The little lady undid the knot again, and her husband tenderly kissed the little intervening hand as it drew nearer; the little lady affected not to have observed this, but she knew it well enough.
"Look now, my darling! it is you who have taught me to consider myself an extraordinary fine fellow. Formerly, when people used to say: General Vértessy is such and such a man, I only used to hold my tongue and think to myself: Talk away! talk away! I happen to know that Vértessy is as timid as a child, there is one thing he is as much in dread of as any schoolgirl, and that is—unravelling a skein of thread. When I was a little chap I twice ran away from home to avoid this very thing. And now my dear little spouse has made it quite clear to me that General Vértessy is not afraid of it after all. Honour to whom honour is due! General Vértessy is a brave man."
"Naturally; why the thirteenth labour of Hercules brought him more fame than all the rest—don't you remember how he held the skeins of Madame Omphale?"