Oh!
There was a moment of complete silence.
Then the little prince flashed back at me, with a kind of resentfulness:
"I don't believe you! Flowers are weak creatures. They are naive. They reassure themselves as best they can. They believe that their thorns are terrible weapons . . ."
I did not answer.
At that instant I was saying to myself: "If this bolt still won't turn, I am going to knock it out with the hammer."
Again the little prince disturbed my thoughts: "And you actually believe that the flowers--"
Oh, no! I cried.
"No, no, no! I don't believe anything.I answered you with the first thing that came into my head. Don't you see--I am very busy with matters of consequence!"
He stared at me, thunderstruck.