of nothing but a sudden yearning
Stronger by far than any force of learning!

Therefore he changed his tone, flung down his wallet,
Described his lot, how pitiable and poor;
The hut of mud,--the miserable pallet,--
The alms solicited from door to door;
The scanty fare of bitter bread and sallet,--
Could she this shame,--this poverty endure?
I scarcely think he knew what he was doing,
But that last line had quite a touch of wooing.

And so she answered him,--those early Greeks
Took little care to keep concealment preying
At any length upon their damask cheeks,--
She answered him by very simply saying,
She could and would:--and said it as one speaks
Who takes no course without much careful weighing....
Was this, perchance, the answer that he hoped?
It might, or might not be. But they eloped.

Sought the free pine-wood and the larger air,--
The leafy sanctuaries, remote and inner,
Where the great heart of nature, beating bare,
Receives benignantly both saint and sinner;--
Leaving propriety to gasp and stare,
And shake its head, like Burleigh, after dinner,
From pure incompetence to mar or mend them:
They fled and wed;--though, mind, I don't defend them.

I don't defend them. 'Twas a serious act,
No doubt too much determined by the senses;
(Alas! when these affinities attract,
We lose the future in the present tenses!)
Besides, the least establishment's a fact
Involving nice adjustment of expenses;
Moreover, too, reflection should reveal
That not remote contingent--_la famille_.

Yet these, maybe, were happy in their lot.
Milton has said (and surely Milton knows)
That after all, philosophy is "not,--
_Not_ harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose;"
And some, no doubt, for Love's sake have forgot
Much that is needful in this world of prose:--
Perchance 'twas so with these. But who shall say?
Time has long since swept them and theirs away.

[1] "Unwisely," surely. But 'tis well to mention
That this particular is _not_ invention.

THE WATER-CURE.

A TALE: IN THE MANNER OF PRIOR.

"--_portentaque Thessala rides?_"
--Hor.
"--_Thessalian portents do you flout?_"
* *

CARDENIO'S fortunes ne'er miscarried
Until the d