But Mangogul set about applying his ring in order of seniority: he began by Madame la Seneschale, whose Toy cough’d three times, and with a trembling and broken voice said: “To the great Seneschal I am indebted for the first fruits of my pleasures: but I had not been his property above six months, when a young Bramin gave my mistress to understand, that a woman can do no injury to her husband, while she thinks on him. I relished the moral, and thenceforward thought I might with a safe conscience admit a senator, then a privy counsellor, then a pontiff, then one or two masters of Requests, then a musician⁠—”

“And Marmolin?” says Fadaes.

“Marmolin,” replies the Toy, “I know him not, unless it be that young coxcomb, whom my lady ordered to be kick’d out of her house, for some insolence, the particulars of which I have forgot.”