ood me?"

"I am afraid, indeed, it will all end ill," said Belle.

"Hold your tongue," said I, "or you will make me lose my patience." "You
have already made me nearly lose mine," said Belle. "Let us have no
unprofitable interruptions," said I; "the conjugations of the Armenian
verbs are neither so numerous nor so difficult as the declensions of the
nouns; hear that, and rejoice. Come, we will begin with the verb hntal,
a verb of the first conjugation, which signifies to rejoice. Come along;
hntam, I rejoice; hntas, thou rejoicest; why don't you follow, Belle?"

"I am sure I don't rejoice, whatever you may do," said Belle. "The chief
difficulty, Belle," said I, "that I find in teaching you the Armenian
grammar, proceeds from your applying to yourself and me every example I
give. Rejoice, in this instance, is merely an example of an Armenian
verb of the first conjugation, and has no more to do with your rejoicing
than lal, which is, also a verb of the first conjugation, and which
signifies to weep, would have to do with your weeping, provided I made
you conjugate it. Come along; hntam, I rejoice; hntas, thou rejoicest;
hnta, he rejoices; hntamk we rejoice: now, repeat those words."

"I can't," said Belle, "they sound more like the language of horses than
human beings. Do you take me for--?" "For what?" said I. Belle was
silent. "Were you going to say mare?" said I. "Mare! mare! by the bye,
do you know, Belle, that mare in old English stands for woman; and that
when we call a female an evil mare, the strict meaning of the term is
merely a bad woman. So if I were to call you a mare without prefixing
bad, you must not be offended." "But I should though," said Belle. "I
was merely attempting to make you acquainted with a philological fact,"
said I. "If mare, which in old English, and likewise in vulgar English,
signifies a woman, sounds the same as mare, which in modern and polite
English signifies a female horse, I can't help it. There is no such
confusion of sounds in Armenian, not, at least, in the same instance.
Belle, in Armenian, woman is ghin, the same word, by the by, as our
queen, whereas mare is madagh tzi, which signifies a female horse; and
perhaps you will permit me to add, that a hard-mouthed jade is, in
Armenian, madagh tzi hsdierah."

"I can't bear this much longer," said Belle. "Keep yourself quiet," said
I; "I wish to be gentle with you; and to convince you, we will skip
hntal, and als