Neatly Extricated.

Otago Witness, Issue 2242, 18 February 1897, Page 53

Neatly Extricated.

Talleyrand had tho wit which enabled him to retire gracefully from an embarrassing situation. Once, ab dinner, he sat between Madame Recamier, the celebrated beauty, and Madame de iStael, whose beauty was not that of the person. Talleyrand prmred forth compliments, fkafc to one lady, then to the oth«r, until Madame de Stael suddenly asked him if she and Madame Kecamier fell into the rivor, which of the two he would save. " Ab, inadarae, you can swim ! " promptly auawered the wit. But there is no ton mot which cannot be capped by one equally witty, and » writer reports this witticism, which he thinks far prettier than Talleyrand's : "Priuce S— , whom I knew formerly, was one day loitering on the banks of tbe Isar, in the English garden at Munich, by the side of a beautiful woman, tbe object of his admiring devotion. While speaking fco her of his mother, for whom he had ever shown the strongest filial love, the lady suddenly said to him : " ' Prince, if your mother and myself should both fall into the river, wbicti one wonld you save first ? ' "My mother,' he ab once replied. •To cave you first would be us if I were to save myself first.' "