it is not a thing to be easily forgotten.

The magpie was all agitation. What could the griffin possibly want
there? She resolved to take a peep at the cavern, and accordingly she
hopped timorously up the rock, and pretended to be picking up sticks for
her nest.

"Holla, ma'am!" cried a very rough voice, and she saw the griffin
putting his head out of the cavern. "Holla! you are the very lady I want
to see; you know all the people about here, eh?"

"All the best company, your lordship, I certainly do," answered the
magpie, dropping a courtesy.

Upon this the griffin walked out; and smoking his pipe leisurely in the
open air, in order to set the pie at her ease, continued,--

"Are there any respectable beasts of good families settled in this
neighbourhood?"

"Oh, most elegant society, I assure your lordship," cried the pie. "I
have lived here myself these ten years, and the great heiress, the cat
yonder, attracts a vast number of strangers."

"Humph! heiress, indeed! much you know about heiresses!" said the
griffin. "There is only one heiress in the world, and that's my
daughter."

"Bless me! has your lordship a family? I beg you a thousand pardons; but
I only saw your lordship's own equipage last night, and did not know you
brought any one with you."

"My daughter went first, and was safely lodged before I arrived. She did
not disturb you, I dare say, as I did; for she sails along like a swan:
but I have got the gout in my left claw, and that's the reason I puff
and groan so in taking a journey."

"Shall I drop in upon Miss Griffin, and see how she is after her
journey?" said the pie, advancing.

"I thank you, no. I don't intend her to be seen while I stay here,--it
unsettles her; and I'm afraid of the young beasts running away with her
if they once heard how handsome she was: she's the living picture of me,
but she's monstrous giddy! Not that I should care much if she did go off
with a beast of degree, were I not obliged to pay her portion, which is
prodigious; and I don't like parting with money, ma'am, when I've once
got it. Ho, ho, ho!"

"You are too witty, my lord. But if you refused your consent?" said the
pie, anxious to know the whole family history of so grand a seigneur.

"I should have to pay the dowry all the same. It was left her by her
uncle the dragon. But don't let this go any further."

"Your lordship may depend on my secrecy. I wish your lordship a very
good morning."

Away flew the