'A second Thalestris,' answered Megret, gallantly kissing her hand. 'I yield myself in disgrace to your mercy. Once have I ridden with you upon a wager, but never will I again! Though, at all events, I know how to ride, I have never yet learned to fly.' 'I have the pleasure to present my nephew to you, colonel,' said the governor, interrupting them. 'What a happy encounter!' said Megret, pretending to derive much pleasure from the meeting, and embracing the youth. 'How delightful it is to me, to greet my dear brother in arms, in a kinsman of this dear family!' A sensation of the deepest disgust oppressed Arwed's bosom at the embrace of the insincere and suspected man. He could not so far control himself as to repay the dissembler in the same coin, and only answered with a silent bow. 'As we shall probably have the pleasure of seeing you here for a long time, my worthy friend,' said Megret, jestingly, and familiarly pointing to Christine, 'you will consider it the friendly service of a true knight when I warn you against this lady.' 'How so?' asked Arwed, and Christine satirically added, 'the colonel probably wishes to inform you, how inexhaustible is his fund of sweet phrases, which mean nothing and which he himself does not believe.' 'How beautiful she is,' continued Megret gaily, 'I need not remark to a blooming youth like you. Her mind, nourished by the manna of the old classics, is a giant that would find its pleasure in storming heaven, and yet she does not lack the graces. Whenever she is in the humor to be amiable, she is irresistible. In short she has every quality requisite to set a man's heart in a flame, and yet I advise every brave man to guard against her, watchfully, as against something which is at the same time the most beautiful and dangerous in all the three kingdoms of nature,--for one all-important quality she lacks!' 'Now this is enough!' suddenly exclaimed Christine, in a tone of great irritation. 'She lacks a heart!' continued Megret, laughing and without suffering himself to be interrupted. 'She can only _wound_, not _heal_. She is a female Charles the XIIth. She holds the amiable weakness of loving in utter detestation, and if Hymen does not perform a miracle upon her, the epitaph must some day be inscribed upon her grave-stone, which England's Elizabeth desired for herself--Here rests the virgin....' 'Shameful!' exclaimed Christine in anger, and striking a heavy blow upon Megret's cheek, the amazon disappeared. 'The girl is mad!' exclaimed the governor. 'Excuse the impropriety, colonel; you shall receive full satisfaction.' 'Never mind, governor,' answered Megret with a courtly smile and rubbing his cheek. 'A cavalier must be content to receive the like from a lady's hand. I shall occasionally take opportunities to revenge myself upon the little savage.'