 | [The declaration, in] The world of wit and humour |  |
450
THE DECLARATION.
“Faith! women are riddles!” I muttered one day,
As I sat by my beautiful Bess;
It seems very queer that whatever they say,
Their meaning no mortal can guess.
As I sat by my beautiful Bess;
It seems very queer that whatever they say,
Their meaning no mortal can guess.
I knew that she loved me by many a sign
That served her affection to show;
But when I suggested, will Betty be mine?
Confound her!—she answered me “No!”
That served her affection to show;
But when I suggested, will Betty be mine?
Confound her!—she answered me “No!”
'Tis the way with the sex—so I often had heard—
And thus their assent they express;
But I couldn't but think it extremely absurd
That a “No” was the same as a “Yes.”
And thus their assent they express;
But I couldn't but think it extremely absurd
That a “No” was the same as a “Yes.”
So I ask'd her again, with my heart in a whirl,
And said, “Do not answer me so!”
When twice in succession the mischievous girl
Repeated that odious “No.”
And said, “Do not answer me so!”
When twice in succession the mischievous girl
Repeated that odious “No.”
“There!” she said, with a laugh, “that is certainly plain;
And your hearing is not over-nice,
Or you wouldn't have forced me to say it again;
For I think I have spoken it twice.”
And your hearing is not over-nice,
Or you wouldn't have forced me to say it again;
For I think I have spoken it twice.”
“I see,” I exclaim'd, as I clasped in my own
The hand of my beautiful Bess;
“I now recollect—what the grammar has shown—
Two negatives equal a “Yes.”
The hand of my beautiful Bess;
“I now recollect—what the grammar has shown—
Two negatives equal a “Yes.”
| [The declaration, in] The world of wit and humour | |