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 Brings back some brief-winged bright sensation Of love that came and love that went,- Or else you thought, the murmuring noon. With birds that gossip in the tune, And windy bough-swing in the metre ; Or else the zigzag fruit-tree arms Recall some dream of harp-prest bosoms, Round singing mouths, and chanted charms, And mediæval orchard blossoms,— Quite à la mode. Alas for prose!— My vagrant fancies only rambled Back to the red-walled Rectory close, Where first my graceless boyhood gamboled, Climbed on the dial, teased the fish, Three peaches. Not the Graces three And, half-abstractedly, I ate them ; Or Two of them. Forthwith Despair- Where I might hide and dwell forgotten, Absolved from brushes and ablution ;— 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, IF NELLIE. F I were you, when ladies at the play, sir, Beckon and nod, a melodrama through, I would not turn abstractedly away, sir, If I were you! 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 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; Borrow my fan. I would not look so frightful, If I were you! FRANK. "It is the cause." I mean your chaperon is Go, if you will. NELLIE. At once! And by express, sir! Where shall it be? To China-or Peru? Go. I should leave inquirers my address, sir, If I were you! No, I remain. FRANK. To stay and fight a duel Seems, on the whole, the proper thing to do;Ah, you are strong, --I would not then be cruel, If I were you! NELLIE. One does not like one's feelings to be doubted.— FRANK. One does not like one's friends to misconstrue.→→ NELLIE. If I confess that I a wee-bit pouted ?— FRANK. I should admit that I was piqué, too. Ask me to dance! If I were you! NELLIE. I'd say no more about it, [Waltz-Exeunt |