IN THE GLOAMING. 85 To be photographed together-cased in pretty Russia leather Hear her gravely doubting whether they have spoilt your honest phiz! Then to bring your plighted fair one first a ring—a rich and rare one Next a bracelet, if she'll wear one, and a heap of things beside; And serenely bending o'er her, to inquire if it would bore her To say when her own adorer may aspire to call her bride? Then, the days of courtship over, with your wife to start for Dover Or Dieppe-and live in clover evermore, whate'er befalls: For I've read in many a novel that, unless they've souls that grovel, Folks prefer, in fact, a hovel to your dreary marble halls. UNDER THE TREES. C. S. C. 66 NDER the trees!" who but agrees That there is magic in words such as these? Promptly one sees shake in the breeze Stately lime avenues haunted of bees: Where, looking far over buttercupped leas, UNDER THE TREES. 87 Or, if painter, hold forth upon Hunt and Maclise, Or, if learned, on nodes and the moon's apogees, Or the latest attempt to convert the Chaldees; Or, in short, about all things, from earthquakes to fleas. Some sit in twos or (less frequently) threes, With their innocent lambswool or book on their knees, And talk and enact any nonsense you please, As they gaze into eyes that are blue as the seas; Makes Miss Tabitha seize on her brown muffatees, 888 UNDER THE TREES. And pretty Louise wraps her robe de cerise For the cold his niece caught sitting under the trees. THE ROMANCE OF A GLOVE. ERE H. SAVILLE CLARKE. ERE on my desk it lies, Here as the daylight dies, One small glove just her size Six and a quarter; Pearl-gray, a colour neat, Deux boutons all complete, Faint-scented, soft and sweet; Could glove be smarter? Can I the day forget, Years ago, when the pet Gave it me?-where we met Still I remember; |