Part 11 (1/2)

There's a quick caress, A kiss, a sigh, A melting eye.

There's a vision of things That hard cash brings,-- A winter at Nice With a servant apiece, A long yachting cruise, Name in ”personal news,”

Plenty of wine, Two hours to dine; But it's different quite when a girl says ”No.”

When a girl says ”No,”

It's so different, oh!

No kiss, ten sighs, Two tear-dimmed eyes.

There's a vision of things That poverty brings,-- A winter complete On Uneasy Street, A temptation to rob, A twelve-dollar job, A boarding-house meal, And you pray a new deal; For it's different quite when a girl says ”No.”

Uncertainty.

Jenny has a laughing eye, Yet she is most wondrous shy.

But why?

Jenny says she hates the men; Still she'll marry. Artful Jen!

But when?

I've a rival who is rich; With one of us sweet Jen will hitch.

But which?

Her Peculiarities.

_The Question of the Learned Man_.

How doth the little blus.h.i.+ng maid Employ each s.h.i.+ning hour?

Doth she, in sober thought arrayed, Learn knowledge that is power?

Say, doth she mend her father's socks, And cook his evening meal?

And doth she make her own sweet frocks With adolescent zeal?

_The Reply of the Observant Youth_.

Not much; not much. She knows it all; She doth not need to learn.

She thinks of naught but rout or ball, And which youth will be her'n.

She hustles for a diamond ring; She cares not for her dad.

She does not make him anything,-- Except, she makes him mad.

Tying the Strings of her Shoe.