DENISE. I'd rather wear E'en such a patched and melancholy air, As his,―that motley one,—who keeps the wall, THE PRINCESS. My frankest wooer! Thus his love he tells DENISE. "He loves?-he loves?" Why all this loving 's naught ! THE PRINCESS. And "Naught (quoth JACQUOT) makes the sum of Love!" DENISE. The cynic knave! How call you this one here?— To snatch the surplus. THE PRINCESS. CHERUBIN, the page. 'Tis but a child, yet with that roguish smile, And those sly looks, the child will make hearts ache DENISE. And these that swim aside-who may these be? THE PRINCESS. Those are two gentlemen of Picardy, Equal in blood,—of equal bravery: D'AURELLES and MAUFRIGNAC. They hunt in pair; I mete them morsels with an equal care, Lest they should eat each other,— -or eat Me. DENISE. And that-and that-and that? THE PRINCESS. I name them not. Those are the crowd who merely think their lot The lighter by my land. More prized than most? DENISE. And is there none THE PRINCESS. Ah me !-he will not come ! He swims at large,—looks shyly on,—is dumb. And then-he's modest! So. he will not come ! THE SUNDIAL. IS an old dial, dark with many a stain; TIS In summer crowned with drifting orchard bloom, Tricked in the autumn with the yellow rain, And white in winter like a marble tomb; And round about its gray, time-eaten brow Here would the ringdoves linger, head to head; And here the snail a silver course would run, The tardy shade moved forward to the noon; That swung a flower, and, smiling, hummed a tune,— O'er her blue dress an endless blossom strayed; She leaned upon the slab a little while, Folded, inscribed, and niched it in the stone. The shade slipped on, no swifter than the snail; She, as if listless with a lonely love, Straying among the alleys with a book,Herrick or Herbert,-watched the circling dove, And spied the tiny letter in the nook. Then, like to one who confirmation found Of some dread secret half-accounted true,- She bent her fair young forehead on the stone; The shade slipped onward to the falling gloom; A ribboned love-lock rippling from his head; |