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| Plainness I like!—What's that you whisper, Venus? Merely a little mot that passed between us. |
| Minerva. | Then tell the Chair. |
| Venus. | 'Twas, that your exclamation,— "Plainness I like"—was gross self-approbation. |
| Minerva. | Ha! Plainness! Bluntness! Yes, they both are mine. |
| Venus. | Beauty and Sharpness are more in my line. |
| Minerva. | Beware! Væ victis! Hazard not a taunt. |
| Venus. | Alas ! at Jena I, too, made that vaunt; Now, I repent,—and shall—till I regain My lost prestige,—my loved Alsace-Lorraine! |
| Juno. | Pallas, don't lose your temper, nor time waste; It's not in a Sedan Chair you are placed. Come, quickly,—and as bluntly as you please!— |
| Minerva. | Goddesses all, the points are simply these:— First,—Proserpine, promulge on what condition You'll deem you have discharged your sacred mission. |
| Proserpine. | Well,—I and Isis (not to trouble you) Have settled all the points but one or two. We've torn up—this one gain from her defeat is— Vain documents that mortals call their Treaties. |
