“Stop! Just a moment!” it said. “Look, if you please! On your left shoulder!”
I craned my neck about, and there was nothing on my left shoulder except the wasp. The wasp was there, indeed, and I made as if to brush him off; but the voice said, “Don’t, if you please!” and I stayed my hand.
You may imagine that I was more astonished than ever. I gazed at the wasp intently, and as I did so the voice began to murmur, in a kind of rapid, buzzing drone, into my left ear.
“Mercy on us!” I cried. “It’s the wasp that’s talking!”
It was true, beyond a doubt. “Yes!” said the voice. “Please listen! If you’d only be so good—I really wish you would!”
The Prince Listens to a Curious Discourse
I stood perfectly still in the roadway, and I know that my mouth hung open as I listened. The wasp buzzed into my ear a kind of rapid, droning song, so low that I had to strain my attention a little to catch it all, and these were the words I heard:
“I know it’s rude to speak to you, it’s something I but seldom do,
to speak before I’m spoken to,