hat only bothers when, ball-business done,
Nature demands champagne and _mayonnaise_.
Just so has each of us sage three abjured
His and her moral pet particular
Pretension to superiority,
And, cheek by jowl, we henceforth munch and joke!
Go, happy pair, paternally dismissed
To live and die together--for a month,
Discretion can award no more! Depart
From whatsoe'er the calm sweet solitude
Selected--Paris not improbably--
At month's end, when the honeycomb's left wax,
--You, daughter, with a pocketful of gold
Enough to find your village boys and girls
In duffel cloaks and hobnailed shoes from May
To--what's the phrase?--Christmas-come-never-mas!
You, son and heir of mine, shall re-appear
Ere Spring-time, that's the ring-time, lose one leaf,
And--not without regretful smack of lip
The while you wipe it free of honey-smear--
Marry the cousin, play the magistrate,
Stand for the country, prove perfection's pink--
Master of hounds, gay-coated dine--nor die
Sooner than needs of gout, obesity,
And sons at Christ Church! As for me,--ah me,
I abdicate--retire on my success,
Four years well occupied in teaching youth
--My son and daughter the exemplary!
Time for me to retire now, having placed
Proud on their pedestal the pair: in turn,
Let them do homage to their master! You,--
Well, your flushed cheek and flashing eye proclaim
Sufficiently your gratitude: you paid
The _honorarium_, the ten thousand pounds
To purpose, did you not? I told you so!
And you, but, bless me, why so pale--so faint
At influx of good fortune? Certainly,
No matter how or why or whose the fault,
I save your life--save it, nor less nor more!
You blindly were resolved to welcome death
In that black boor-and-bumpkin-haunted hole
Of his, the prig with all the preachments! _You_
Installed as nurse and matron to the crones
And wenches, while there lay a world outside
Like Paris (which again I recommend)
In company and guidance of--first, this,
Then--all in good time--some new friend as fit--
What if I were to say, some fresh myself,
As I once figured? Each dog has his day,
And mine's at sunset: what should old dog do
But eye young litters' frisky puppyhood?
Oh I shall watch this beauty and this youth
Frisk it in brilliance! But don't fear! Discre