Volume Iv Part 19 (1/2)

And yet, perhaps, if they were moved, And stood together day by day, Their love had not so constant proved, Nor would they still have smiled so gay.

His hand the Shepherd might have kissed The match-box Angel's heart to win; The Shepherdess, his love have missed, And flirted with the Mandarin.

But on my mantel-piece they stand, While all its length between them lies; He throws a kiss with graceful hand, She glances back with bashful eyes.

Mildred Howells [1872-

ON THE FLY-LEAF OF A BOOK OF OLD PLAYS

At Cato's Head in Russell Street These leaves she sat a-st.i.tching; I fancy she was trim and neat, Blue-eyed and quite bewitching.

Before her on the street below, All powder, ruffs, and laces, There strutted idle London beaux To ogle pretty faces;

While, filling many a Sedan chair With monstrous hoop and feather, In paint and powder London's fair Went trooping past together.

Swift, Addison, and Pope, mayhap They sauntered slowly past her, Or printer's boy, with gown and cap, For Steele, went trotting faster.

For beau nor wit had she a look; Nor lord nor lady minding, She bent her head above this book, Attentive to her binding.

And one stray thread of golden hair, Caught on her nimble fingers, Was st.i.tched within this volume, where Until to-day it lingers.

Past and forgotten, beaux and fair, Wigs, powder, all outdated; A queer antique, the Sedan chair, Pope, stiff and antiquated.

Yet as I turn these odd, old plays, This single stray lock finding, I'm back in those forgotten days, And watch her at her binding.

Walter Learned [1847-1915]

THE TALENTED MAN Letter From A Lady In London To A Lady At Lausanne

Dear Alice! you'll laugh when you know it,-- Last week, at the d.u.c.h.ess's ball, I danced with the clever new poet,-- You've heard of him,--Tully St. Paul.

Miss Jonquil was perfectly frantic; I wish you had seen Lady Anne!

It really was very romantic, He is such a talented man!

He came up from Brazen Nose College, Just caught, as they call it, this spring; And his head, love, is stuffed full of knowledge Of every conceivable thing.

Of science and logic he chatters, As fine and as fast as he can; Though I am no judge of such matters, I'm sure he's a talented man.

His stories and jests are delightful;-- Not stories or jests, dear, for you; The jests are exceedingly spiteful, The stories not always quite true.

Perhaps to be kind and veracious May do pretty well at Lausanne; But it never would answer,--good gracious!

Chez nous--in a talented man.

He sneers,--how my Alice would scold him!-- At the bliss of a sigh or a tear; He laughed--only think!--when I told him How we cried o'er Trevelyan last year; I vow I was quite in a pa.s.sion; I broke all the sticks of my fan; But sentiment's quite out of fas.h.i.+on, It seems, in a talented man.

Lady Bab, who is terribly moral, Has told me that Tully is vain, And apt--which is silly--to quarrel, And fond--which is sad--of champagne.

I listened, and doubted, dear Alice, For I saw, when my Lady began, It was only the Dowager's malice;-- She does hate a talented man!

He's hideous, I own it. But fame, love, Is all that these eyes can adore; He's lame,--but Lord Byron was lame, love, And dumpy,--but so is Tom Moore.

Then his voice,--such a voice! my sweet creature, It's like your Aunt Lucy's toucan: But oh! what's a tone or a feature, When once one's a talented man?