r;
Find it no more, dear heart, a ground for stray tiffs
Because, forsooth, you can't detect in me
A tendency to go out whopping caitiffs
Daily from ten till three.

He proved himself in his especial fashion,
Daring the worst to earn a lover's boon,
But I, no less than he a prey to passion,
Faced risks as great this very afternoon,
When at the Tube a long half-hour I waited
(In fond obedience to your written beck)
Where loiterers, it practically stated,
Would get it in the neck.

The liftmen who from time to time ascended
To spill their loads (in which you had no part)
Regarded me with eagle eyes intended
To lay the touch of terror on my heart;
But through a wait thus perilously dreary
My spirits drooped not nor my courage flinched;
"She cometh not," I merely sighed, "I'm weary
And likely to be pinched."

You came at last, long last, to end my fretting,
And now you know how your devoted bard
Faced for your sake the risk of fine or getting
An unaccustomed dose of labour (hard);
Harbour no more that idiotic notion
That love to-day is unromantic, flat;
Gave _Lancelot_ such a proof of his devotion,
Did _Galahad_ do that?

* * * * *

PAMELA'S ALPHABET.

_Scene._--A DOMESTIC INTERIOR.

Pamela's _father, in one armchair, is making a praiseworthy effort to
absorb an article in a review on "The Future of British Finance." In
another armchair_ Pamela's _mother is doing some sort of mending._
Pamela _herself, stretched upon the hearthrug, is reading aloud
interesting extracts from a picture-book._

_Pamela_ (_in a cheerful sing-song_). A for Donkey; B for Dicky.

_Her Father._ What sort of dicky?

_Pamela_ (_examining the illustration more closely_). All ugly black,
bissect for his blue mouf.

_Her Mother_ (_instructively_). Not blue; yellow. And it's a beak, not a
mouth.

_Pamela._ I calls it a mouf. He's eating wiv it. (_With increasing
disfavour_) A poor little worm he's eating. Don't like him; he's crool.
(_She turns the page hurriedly and continues_) C for Pussy; D for Mick.

[_This is the name of the family mongrel. That the picture
represents an absolutely thoroughbred collie matters nothing to_
Pamela. _She spends some time in admiring_ Mick, _then rapidly
sweeps over certain illustrations that fail to attract._

_Pamela_ (_stopping at the sight of a web-footed fowl,