d poise are irresistible. _PALL MALL_
Joys in him, and _MILE END_; for his vocation
Is to purvey the stuff of conversation.

XI. DRUM-MAJOR

Who says _Drum-Major_ says a man of mould,
Shaking the meek earth with tremendous tread,
And pacing still, a triumph to behold,
Of his own spine at least two yards ahead!
Attorney, grocer, surgeon, broker, duke--
His calling may be anything, who comes
Into a room, his presence a rebuke
To the dejected, as the pipes and drums
Inspired his port!--who mounts his office stairs
As though he led great armies to the fight!
His bulk itself's pure genius, and he wears
His avoirdupois with so much fire and spright
That, though the creature stands but five feet five,
You take him for the tallest He alive.

XII. FLOWER-GIRL

There's never a delicate nurseling of the year
But our huge _LONDON_ hails it, and delights
To wear it on her breast or at her ear,
Her days to colour and make sweet her nights.
Crocus and daffodil and violet,
Pink, primrose, valley-lily, clove-carnation,
Red rose and white rose, wall-flower, mignonette,
The daisies all--these be her recreation,
Her gaudies these! And forth from _DRURY LANE_,
Trapesing in any of her whirl of weathers,
Her flower-girls foot it, honest and hoarse and vain,
All boot and little shawl and wilted feathers:
Of populous corners right advantage taking,
And, where they squat, endlessly posy-making.

XIII. BARMAID

Though, if you ask her name, she says _ELISE_,
Being plain _ELIZABETH_, e'en let it pass,
And own that, if her aspirates take their ease,
She ever makes a point, in washing glass,
Handling the engine, turning taps for _tots_,
And countering change, and scorning what men say,
Of posing as a dove among the pots,
Nor often gives her dignity away.
Her head's a work of art, and, if her eyes
Be tired and ignorant, she has a waist;
Cheaply the Mode she shadows; and she tries
From penny novels to amend her taste;
And, having mopped the zinc for certain years,
And faced the gas, she fades and disappears.
_The Artist muses at his ease_,
_Contented that his work is done_,
_And smiling_--_smiling_!--_as he sees_
_His crowd collecting_, _one by one_.
_Alas_! _his travail's but begun_!
_None_, _none can keep the years in line_,
_And what to Ninety-Eight is fun_
_May raise the gorge of Ninety-Nine_!

MUSWELL HILL, 1898.

III. THREE PROLOGUES

I. BEAU AUSTIN

_By W.