[_In an undertone to PRINGLE._] _Jinnee!_ Call him "Jinnee"!
[_To HORACE._] I prefer to leave such familiarities to _you_, Ventimore----[_To MULE._]--this venerable _personage_, Professor, that if you have inadvertently offended him, you are ready to make any reasonable apology. That is so?
Ask if he be willing to surrender the stopper of the bottle wherein I was enclosed.
Now, Professor, if you consent to a request which I must say seems to me a very moderate and proper one, will you--er--signify the same in the usual manner by raising--er--your right ear?
No, no, he _meant_ the right ear--he hasn't got complete muscular control as yet. I _really_ think we should get on better if you gave him back his power of speech.
It may be so. [_He approaches THE MULE and addresses it._] O thou of remarkable attainments, whom I have caused to assume the shape of this mule, speak, I command thee, and say if thou wilt restore my stopper.
[_Laying back its ears and showing its teeth._] I'll see you damned first!
[_Going towards THE MULE in distress._] Oh! he wouldn't be so obstinate if he wasn't a mule!
[_To THE MULE._] Thou art trifling with my safety and thine own! Reveal unto me the spot in which thou hast hidden the stopper and delay not--for it will be no difficult undertaking to transform these women of thine into mules like thyself.
[_Horror of MRS. FUTVOYE and SYLVIA, _and despair and rage of HORACE, who rises and rushes towards FAKRASH.
We shall at least be a more united family than we are now!
[_Frantically._] Anthony! Don't provoke him! Think of _others_!
[_With some anxiety._] Hearken! I am disposed to show thee indulgence. Obey,--and I will restore thee to what thou wert.
Why couldn't you say so before? I'll accept _those_ terms, as there's no alternative. Only--[_with his head on one side reflectively_]--I can't for the life of me recollect what I _did_ with that seal. Tut-tut!
[_Irritably._] I _am_ thinking, Sophia! [_After further reflection._] Ah! I remember now! I put it inside one of the vases on the mantelpiece, for safety.
[HORACE looks aimlessly under the table and sofa; MRS. FUTVOYE, SYLVIA, and PRINGLE rush to the fireplace and search the vases._
[_Turning vases upside down._] Which? Which? No. It's not _there_! It's not _here._