tand what I mean."

"Yes, now I understand what you mean. And it is really a little like the
woods, too," she added. "Those iron acorns and leaves are the branches,
and the stuffed eagles are the birds."

He looked at the oak-branches and the eagles for some time, and then he
said:

"Let us talk."

"What are we doing now?"

"We are waiting for what is to be to eat."

"I thought that that in itself was always sufficient entertainment for a
man."

"I like better to talk. I have not much time more to talk with you,
_vous savez_."

"We will talk," she said, hastily. Her eyes wandered vaguely over the
room seeking a subject for immediate discussion; all that she saw was
the perpendicular cue of one of the billiard players.

"Watch!" she exclaimed. "He's going to make an awfully difficult shot."

Von Ibn looked towards the player with very little interest depicted on
his countenance.

"Oh, he missed," she exclaimed disgustedly.

"But of course. How could a man like that do such a _masse_? You are so
hopeful ever. You say, 'See him make so difficult a play,' when only
looking upon the man's face tells that he himself is sure that he is
about to fail."

"I'll give you a riddle," she went on, receiving his expostulation with
a smile. "But perhaps you don't know what a riddle is?" she added
questioningly.

"Yes, I do know what a riddle is; it is what you do not know and must
tell."

"Yes, that is it."

"And your riddle is?"

"Why am I like a dragon?"

"Like a--" he faltered.

"Dragon."

"What is a dragon?"

"It's a horrible monster. Don't you know the picture in the Schaak
Gallery of that creature running its neck out through the slit in the
rock so as to devour the two donkeys?"

"Yes, I know the picture. But that creature is blue."

"Oh," she said hopelessly, "it's no use trying to tell you riddles, you
don't understand."

"Yes, I do," he cried eagerly. "I understand perfectly and I assure you
that I like very much. Dragon is '_drachen_,' _n'est ce pas_?"

"Yes."

"And you are as one?"

"I ask _why_ am I like one?"

He looked particularly blank.

"You are perhaps hungry?" he hazarded.

She began to laugh.

"No, it's because I'm breathing smoke."

"Do dragons breathe smoke? It is a salamander you are believing in."

"In pictures dragons always breathe smoke and fire."

"But there is no fire here."

"There must be somewhere, because there is so much smoke."

He was unmoved and