t willow wand--your present
guardian. Strategy is better than fierce assault, bloodless cunning
than a gory pitched battle; Cambyses' cats took Pelusium more
successfully than the entire Persian army could have done, and the
head dresses Hannibal arranged for his oxen, delivered him from the
clutches of Fabius and the legions. In my ignorance of polite and
prudent tactics, I dashed into the conflict, yelled, clawed
(metaphorically, you understand), and fought like the Austrians at
Wagram; but of course came out always miserably beaten, with trailing
banners and many gaping wounds. Regina, you might just as well stand
below the Palisades, and fire at them with cartridges of boiled rice,
as make open fight with Erle Palma. Be wise and assume the appearance
of submission, no matter how stubbornly you are resolved not to give
up. Don't you know that Cilician geese outwit even the eagles? In
passing over Taurus, the geese always carry stones in their mouths,
and thus by bridling their gabbling tongues they safely cross the
mountain infested with eagles, without being discovered by their
foes. I commend to you the strategy of silence."

"Do not counsel me to be insincere and deceitful. I consider it
dishonourable and contemptible."

"Why will you persist in using words that have been out of style as
long as huge hoop-skirts, coal-scuttle bonnets, and long-tailed
frock-coats? Once, I know, ugly things and naughty ways were called
outright by their proper, exact names; but you should not forget that
the world is improving, and _nous avons change tout cela!_

'We have that sort of courtesy about us,
We would not flatly call a fool a fool.'

I daresay some benighted denizens of the remote rural districts might
be found, who still say 'tadpole,' whereas we know only that
embryonic batrachians exist: and it is just possible that in the
extreme western wilds a poor girl might rashly state that being
sleepy she intended 'going to bed,' which you must admit could be an
everlasting stigma and disgrace here, where all refined people merely
'retire;' leaving the curious world to conjecture whither,--into the
cabinet of a diplomatist, the confession box of a cathedral, the cell
of an anchorite, or to that very essential and comfortable piece of
household furniture which at this instant I fully appreciate, and
which the Romans kept in their _cubiculum_. Even in my childhood,
when I was soaped and rubbed and ri