"Cozening, no doubt. Of course the tale may be but idle babble; still, if
true, one would admit that such credulous fools got no more than they
deserved."
She ceased, well satisfied. "I fancy," observed the Lady Yolande coldly,
"that I hear our lords returning." And in the eloquent silence a score of
fair young minds slowly assimilated the profound truth (as fresh to-day as
eight hundred years ago) that Satan finds some mischief still for the
impecunious demobilised.
* * * * *
TO JESSIE
(_"one of the Zoo's most popular elephants," now deceased_).
Jessie of the melting eye,
Wreathed trunk and horny tegum-
Ent, whom I have joyed to ply
With the fugitive mince-pie
And the seasonable legume,
Youth has left me; fortune too
Flounts my efforts to annex it;
Still, I occupy the view,
Bored but loath to leave, while you
Make the inevitable exit.
Ne'er again for blissful rides
Shall our shouting offspring clamber
Up your broad and beetling sides;
Ne'er again, when eventide's
Coming turns the skies to amber
And the fluting blackbirds call,
Poised above a bale of fodder
In your well-appointed stall
Will you muse upon it all,
Patient introspective plodder.
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