What could we else, we promised each; and she, Like some wild creature, newly-caged, commenced A to-and-fro, so pacing till she paused By Florian; holding out her lily arms, Took both his hands, and smiling faintly said: With that she kissed His forehead, then, a moment after, clung Sweet household talk, and phrases of the hearth, They stood, so rapt, we gazing, came a voice, A rosy blonde, and in a college gown So stood that same fair creature at the door. Then Lady Psyche, "Ah - Melissa — you! You heard us?" and Melissa, "O pardon me! I heard, I could not help it, did not wish : But, dearest Lady, pray you fear me not, Nor think I bear that heart within my breast, To give three gallant gentlemen to death." “I trust you,” said the other, " for we two Were always friends, none closer, elm and vine: But yet your mother's jealous temperamentLet not your prudence, dearest, drowse, o. prove The Danaïd of a leaky vase, for fear This whole foundation ruin, and I lose My honor, these their lives." "Ah, fear me not," Replied Melissa, "no-I would not tell, “no No, not for all Aspasia's cleverness, No, not to answer, Madam, all those hard things That Sheba came to ask of Solomon." "Be it so," the other, " that we still may lead The new light up, and culminate in peace, For Solomon may come to Sheba yet." Said Cyril, Madam, he the wisest man, Feasted the woman wisest then, in halls Of Lebanonian cedar: nor should you (Though madam you should answer, we would ask) Less welcome find among us, if you came Among us, debtors for our lives to you, Myself for something more." He said not what, They do so that affect abstraction here. Speak little; mix not with the rest; and hold We turned to go, but Cyril took the child, And then we strolled For half the day through stately theatres Benched crescent-wise. The In each we sat, we heard grave Professor. On the lecture slate The circle rounded under female hands With flawless demonstration: followed then A classic lecture, rich in sentiment, And quoted odes, and jewels five-words-long, That treats of whatsoever is, the state, The total chronicles of man, the mind, And whatsoever can be taught and known; 66 They hunt old trails," said Cyril, “very well; But when did woman ever yet invent?" "Ungracious!" answered Florian, "have you learnt No more from Psyche's lecture, you that talked The trash that made me sick, and almost sad?" O trash," he said, "but with a kernel in it. A thousand hearts lie fallow in these halls I know the substance when I see it. Well, And two dear things are one of double worth, |