University of Virginia Library

When you look upon her face,
In her beauty you can trace
Something wistful now and then;
Then she turns and smiles again
On her waiting worshippers:
They know not this spur of hers
Press'd against her noble heart,
And, when bootless they depart,
Mutter slanders of coquette.
I myself should not know yet
Were it not that Dick and I
Were school-cronies formerly,
Shared a study and a crib,
Had a fight: I broke his rib,
He made music in my head.
When he went away, he said:
“Ethel, I've told all to Fred;
He and I are limb and limb,
Make a confidant of him
When you want to talk of me.”
This is how I came to be
Privy to her sacrifice.
Often, with her grave sweet eyes,
Fasten'd on me, she will ask
Me of every trick and task
Of his scapegoat schoolboy life.
He is worthy such a wife;
Try your best, you will not find
Better fellow of his kind.
He'd have been a famous knight
In the bright enchanted night
Of Provencal chivalry.
Modern-times reality,
Like a dull unwelcome day,
Drove the magic night away
With its legendary grace.
When I look upon her face,
Making Dick a schoolboy Cid,
Rubbing up the feats he did,
And her grateful fluent eyes
Give me eloquent replies,
Oft I wish that I might plead
Someone else's cause instead.