Girls?— more like men!" and at these words the
My secret, seem'd to stir within my breast;
And O, sirs, could I help it, but my cheek
Began to burn and burn, and her lynx eye
To fix and make me hotter, till she laugh'd:
"O marvellously modest maiden, you!
Men! girls, like men! why, if they had been men
You need not set your thoughts in rubric thus
For wholesale comment." Pardon, I am shamed
That I must needs repeat for my excuse
What looks so little graceful: "men for still My mother went revolving on the word—
And with that woman closeted for hours!"
Then came these dreadful words out one by one,
"O, ask me nothing," I said. "And she knows
And she conceals it." So my mother clutch'd
The truth at once, but with no word from me;
And now thus early risen she goes to inform
The Princess. Lady Psyche will be crush'd;
But you may yet be saved, and therefore fly;
But heal me with your pardon ere you go.'
'What pardon, sweet Melissa, for a blush?' Said Cyril Pale one, blush again; than wear
Those lilies, better blush our lives away.
Yet let us breathe for one hour more in heaven,'
He added, lest some classic angel speak
In scorn of us, "They mounted, Ganymedes,
To tumble, Vulcans, on the second morn."
But I will melt this marble into wax
To yield us farther furlough;' and he went.
Melissa shook her doubtful curls, and thought He scarce would prosper. Tell us,' Florian ask'd, 'How grew this feud betwixt the right and left.' 'O, long ago,' she said, 'betwixt these two Division smoulders hidden; 't is my mother, Too jealous, often fretful as the wind Pent in a crevice: much I bear with her.
I never knew my father, but she
God help her! she was wedded to a fool;
And still she rail'd against the state of things.
She had the care of Lady Ida's youth,
And from the Queen's decease she brought her
But when your sister came she won the heart
Of Ida; they were still together, grew -
For so they said themselves—inosculated;
Consonant chords that shiver to one note;
One mind in all things. Yet my mother still
Affirms your Psyche thieved her theories,
And angled with them for her pupils' love;
She calls her plagiarist, I know not what.
But I must go; I dare not tarry,' and light,
As flies the shadow of a bird, she fled.
Then murmur'd Florian, gazing after her: An open-hearted maiden, true and pure. If I could love, why this were she. Her blushing was, and how she blush'd again, As if to close with Cyril's random wish! Not like your Princess cramm'd with erring pride, Nor like poor Psyche whom she drags in tow.'
The crane,' I said, ' may chatter of the crane,
The dove may murmur of the dove, but I
An eagle clang an eagle to the sphere.
My Princess, O my Princess! true she errs,
But in her own grand way; being herself
Three times more noble than three score of men,
She sees herself in every woman else,
And so she wears her error like a crown
To blind the truth and me. For her, and her,
Hebes are they to hand ambrosia, mix
The Samian Herè rises, and she speaks
A Memnon smitten with the morning sun.'
So saying from the court we paced, and gain'd The terrace ranged along the northern front, And leaning there on those balusters, high Above the empurpled champaign, drank the gale
That blown about the foliage underneath,
And sated with the innumerable rose,
Beat balm upon our eyelids.
Cyril, and yawning, O hard task,' he cried:
'No fighting shadows here.
Thro' solid opposition crabb'd and gnarl❜d.
Better to clear prime forests, heave and thump
A league of street in summer solstice down,
Than hammer at this reverend gentlewoman.
I knock'd and, bidden, enter'd; found her there
At point to move, and settled in her eyes
The green malignant light of coming storm.
Sir, I was courteous, every phrase well-oil'd,
As man's could be; yet maiden-meek I pray'd
Concealment. She demanded who we were,
And why we came? I fabled nothing fair,
But, your example pilot, told her all.
Up went the hush'd amaze of hand and
But when I dwelt upon your old affiance,
She answer'd sharply that I talk'd astray.
I urged the fierce inscription on the gate,
And our three lives. True we had limed our-
With open eyes, and we must take the chance.
But such extremes, I told her, well might harm The woman's cause. "Not more than now," she
"So puddled as it is with favoritism."
I tried the mother's heart. Shame might befall
Melissa, knowing, saying not she knew;
Her answer was, "Leave me to deal with that."
I spoke of war to come and many deaths,
And she replied, her duty was to speak,
And duty duty, clear of consequences.
I grew discouraged, sir; but since I knew
No rock so hard but that a little wave
May beat admission in a thousand years,
I recommenced: "Decide not ere you pause.
I find you here but in the second place,
Some say the third the authentic foundress you.
I offer boldly; we will seat you highest.
Wink at our advent; help my prince to gain
His rightful bride, and here I promise you
Some palace in our land, where you shall reign
The head and heart of all our fair she-world,
And your great name flow on with broadening time
For ever." Well, she balanced this a little,
And told me she would answer us to-day,
Meantime be mute; thus much, nor more I gain'd.'
He ceasing, came a message from the Head.
• That afternoon the Princess rode to take
The dip of certain strata to the north.
Would we go with her? we should find the land
Worth seeing, and the river made a fall
Out yonder;' then she pointed on to where
A double hill ran up his furrowy forks
Beyond the thick-leaved platans of the vale.
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