“I can’t,” said Belle, “they sound more like the language of horses than of 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 bad woman.  So if I were to call you 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-bye, 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 also for the present verbs of the first conjugation, and proceed to the second.  Belle, I will now select for you to conjugate the prettiest verb in Armenian; not only of the second, but also of all the four conjugations; that verb is siriel.  Here is the present tense:—­siriem, siries, sire, siriemk, sirek, sirien.  You observe that it runs on just in the same manner as hntal, save and except that e is substituted for a; and it will be as well to tell you that almost the only difference between the second, third, and fourth conjugations, and the first, is the substituting in the present, preterite, and other tenses e, or ou, or i for a; so you see that the Armenian verbs are by no means difficult.  Come on, Belle, and say siriem.”  Belle hesitated.  “Pray oblige me, Belle, by saying siriem!” Belle still appeared to hesitate.  “You must admit, Belle, that it is much softer than hntam.”  “It is so,” said Belle; “and to oblige you, I will say siriem.”  “Very well indeed, Belle,” said I.  “No vartabied, or doctor, could have pronounced it better; and now, to show you how verbs act upon pronouns in Armenian, I will say siriem zkiez.  Please to repeat siriem zkiez!” “Siriem zkiez!” said Belle; “that last word is very hard to say.”  “Sorry that you think so, Belle,” said I.  “Now please to say siria zis.”  Belle did so.  “Exceedingly well,” said I.  “Now say yerani the sireir zis.”  “Yerani the sireir zis,” said Belle.  “Capital!” said I; “you have now said, I love you—­love me—­ah! would that you would love me!”