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And kiss thee now for the first time,

And fling mine arms round thee;

But should you say I've said this before,

And you to kisses are fain,

Then say I: "King, he's but a fool

Who minds such trifles in vain."

W. F. H.

What has a love kiss to do with the law of renewal? That one does not arrive at anything by one kiss is expressed with sufficient plainness in an Istro-Roumanian proverb: Cu un trat busni nu se afla muliere (with a single kiss no woman is caught).

This maxim holds good besides in the case of both men and women. But how many kisses are necessary then?

There is a little Greek folk-song called "All good things are three." It runs as follows:

Your first kiss brought me near to the grave,

Your second kiss came my life to save;

But if a third kiss you'll bestow,

Not even death can bring me woe.

W. F. H.

But, nevertheless, we may assume without a shadow of a doubt that he was not satisfied with these three kisses—lovers are not wont to be so easily contented. The Spaniards and many other nations besides say of lovers that "they eat each other up with kisses;"