⁠Ay, 'twas here, on this spot,
⁠In that summer of yore,
⁠Atalanta did not
⁠Vote my presence a bore,
Nor reply, to my tenderest talk, she had 'heard all
⁠that nonsense before.'

⁠She'd the brooch I had bought
⁠And the necklace and sash on,
⁠And her heart, as I thought,
⁠Was alive to my passion;
And she'd done up her hair in the style that the
⁠Empress had brought into fashion.

⁠I had been to the play
⁠With my pearl of a Peri—
⁠But, for all I could say,
⁠She declared she was weary,
That 'the place was so crowded and hot', and she
⁠'couldn't abide that Dundreary.'

⁠Then I thought "'Tis for me
⁠That she whines and she whimpers!"
⁠And it soothed me to see
⁠Those sensational simpers,
And I said "This is scrumptious!"—a phrase I had
⁠learned from the Devonshire shrimpers.

⁠And I vowed "'Twill be said
⁠I'm a fortunate fellow,
⁠When the breakfast is spread,
⁠When the topers are mellow,
When the foam of the bride-cake is white, and the
⁠fierce orange-blossoms are yellow."

⁠O that languishing yawn!
⁠O those eloquent eyes!
⁠I was drunk with the dawn
⁠Of a splendid surmise—
I was stung by a look, I was slain by a tear, by a
⁠tempest of sighs.

⁠And I whispered "I guess
⁠The sweet secret thou keepest,
⁠And the dainty distress
⁠That thou wistfully weepest;
And the question is 'License or banns?' though
⁠undoubtedly banns are the cheapest."

⁠Then her white hand I clasped,
⁠And with kisses I crowned it:
⁠But she glared and she gasped,
⁠And she muttered "Confound it!"—
Or at least it was something like that, but the noise
⁠of the omnibus drowned it.