THE MAIDEN WELL GUARDED.
girl, who was acquiring a taste for this form of embroidery, said to Pierre:
"'Tis not sewen sufficiently firm."
"Indeed it is."
"'Tis not."
"But I have no more thread."
"Miserable deceiver!" cried the girl. "He saith he hath no more thread, yet all the while he possesseth two great balls of it!"[1]
- ↑ Peloton is the word in the text, signifying, literally, a ball made of things (thread, silk or wool) wound round it. The play on words is remarkable apt in the last few lines of the story, peloton exactly connoting, in the mind of the simple girl, the youth's testicles and pubic hair.
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