And wrung it. 'Doubt my word again!' he said. Come, listen! here is proof that you were miss'd: We seven stay'd at Christmas up to read; And there we took one tutor as to read : The hard-grain'd Muses of the cube and square Were out of season: never man, I think, So moulder'd in a sinecure as he : For while our cloisters echo'd frosty feet, And our long walks were stript as bare as brooms, We did but talk you over, pledge you all In wassail; often, like as many girls Sick for the hollies and the yews of home As many little trifling Lilias-play'd Charades and riddles as at Christmas here, And what's my thought and when and where and how And often told a tale from mouth to mouth As here at Christmas.' She remember'd that: A pleasant game, she thought: she liked it more Than magic music, forfeits, all the rest. But these—what kind of tales did men tell men, She wonder'd, by themselves? A half-disdain Perch'd on the pouted blossom of her lips: The rest would follow, each in turn ; and so Chimeras, crotchets, Christmas solecisms, Seven-headed monsters only made to kill • Kill him now, 6 The tyrant! kill him in the summer too,' Said Lilia; Why not now,' the maiden Aunt. Why not a summer's as a winter's tale? A tale for summer as befits the time, And something it should be to suit the place, Heroic, for a hero lies beneath, Grave, solemn ! ' Walter warp'd his mouth at this To something so mock-solemn, that I laugh'd And Lilia woke with sudden-shrilling mirth Hid in the ruins; till the maiden Aunt (A little sense of wrong had touch'd her face With colour) turn'd to me with As you will; Heroic if you will, or what you will, Or be yourself your hero if you will.' 'Take Lilia, then, for heroine' clamour'd he, And make her some great Princess, six feet high, Grand, epic, homicidal; and be you The Prince to win her!' Then follow me, the Prince,' 6 I answer'd, each be hero in his turn! Heroic seems our Princess as required.— But something made to suit with Time and place, A Gothic ruin and a Grecian house, A talk of college and of ladies' rights, And, yonder, shrieks and strange experiments— No matter we will say whatever comes. And let the ladies sing us, if they will, From time to time, some ballad or a song To give us breathing-space.' So I began, And the rest follow'd: and the women sang Between the rougher voices of the men, I. A PRINCE I was, blue-eyed, and fair in face, To lash offence, and with long arms and hands Now it chanced that I had been, While life was yet in bud and blade, betroth'd To one, a neighbouring Princess: she to me |