More empty things, I fear, than rhymes, Is absolutely unsuggestive. The fickle Muse! As ladies will, She flies the more that we pursue her; But cannot comfortably show it. You thought, no doubt, the garden-scent Of love that came and love that went,- H Or else you thought,—the murmuring noon, And windy bough-swing in the metre ; Recall some dream of harp-prest bosoms, Round singing mouths, and chanted charms, And mediæval orchard blossoms,— Quite à la mode. Alas for prose !— And chased the kitten round the beeches, Till widening instincts made me wish Three peaches. Not the Graces three I would not look, yet went to see; I felt the pangs of those who feel The Laws of Property beset them; The conflict made my reason reel, And, half-abstractedly, I ate them;- Or Two of them. Forthwith Despair- Where I might hide and dwell forgotten, Absolved from brushes and ablution;But, ere my sylvan haunt was gained, Fate gave me up to execution. I saw it all but now. The grin That gnarled old Gardener Sandy's features; My father, scholar-like and thin, Unroused, the tenderest of creatures; I saw-ah me-I saw again My dear and deprecating mother; And then, remembering the cane, Regretted that I'd left the Other. TU QUOQUE. AN IDYLL IN THE CONSERVATORY. 66 -romprons-nous, Ou ne romprons-nous pas ?" LE DÉPIT AMOUREUX. NELLIE. FI were you, when ladies at the play, sir, IF Beckon and nod, a melodrama through, FRANK. If I were you, when persons I affected, Wait for three hours to take me down to Kew, I would, at least, pretend I recollected, If I were you! NELLIE. If I were you, when ladies are so lavish, I would not dance with odious Miss M'Tavish FRANK. If I were you, who vow you cannot suffer Whiff of the best,-the mildest "honey-dew," I would not dance with smoke-consuming Puffer, If I were you! NELLIE. If I were you, I would not, sir, be bitter, FRANK. No, I should doubtless find flirtation fitter, If I were you! NELLIE. Really! You would? Why, Frank, you're quite delightful, Hot as Othello, and as black of hue; FRANK. "It is the cause." I mean your chaperon is |