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.