To which Arissa: "Well, I'll be busy for the next ten years. I
mean, I've got stuff to do, forsooth."
Well, our hero was getting a bit despondent about all this, and for
sure his friends weren't helping much. Far from their giving him
encouragement, their laughter rang so constantly in Sir Percival's
head that he began to wonder if he was still quite sane. And not
a few of his friends hinted here and there that psychiatric
consultation might be useful to the knight, to get him over his
ridiculous interest in the agreeable Arissa.
About this time it so happened that as Sir Percival was on his way
to visit Sir Wishful for a nice dinner of trout and onions, he quite
unexpectedly came upon Arissa, lovely as ever, sitting near the
village waterfall and picking her teeth. Almost out of habit, Sir
Percival spoke: "Arissa, sugar, would you like to go out with
me sometime?"