Humph! "You'll come, for I've got you a prize, with beauty and money no end: You know her, I think; 'twas on dit she once was engaged to your friend; But she says that's all over." Ah, is it? Sweet Ethel! incomparable maid! Or--what if the thing were a trick?--this letter so freely displayed!-- My opportune presence! No! nonsense! Will nobody answer the bell? Call a cab! Half past ten. Not too late yet. Oh, Ethel! Why don't you go? Well? "Master said you would wait"-- Hang your master! "Have I ever a message to send?" Yes, tell him I've gone to the German to dance with the friend of his friend. WHAT THE WOLF REALLY SAID TO LITTLE RED RIDING-HOOD Wondering maiden, so puzzled and fair, Why dost thou murmur and ponder and stare? "Why are my eyelids so open and wild?" Only the better to see with, my child! Only the better and clearer to view Cheeks that are rosy and eyes that are blue. Dost thou still wonder, and ask why these arms Fill thy soft bosom with tender alarms, Swaying so wickedly? Are they misplaced Clasping or shielding some delicate waist? Hands whose coarse sinews may fill you with fear Only the better protect you, my dear! Little Red Riding-Hood, when in the street, Why do I press your small hand when we meet? Why, when you timidly offered your cheek, Why did I sigh, and why didn't I speak? Why, well: you see--if the truth must appear-- I'm not your grandmother, Riding-Hood, dear! HALF AN HOUR BEFORE SUPPER "So she's here, your unknown Dulcinea, the lady you met on the train, And you really believe she would know you if you were to meet her again?" "Of course," he replied, "she would know me; there never was womankind yet Forgot the effect she inspired. She excuses, but does not forget." "Then you told her your love?" asked the elder. The younger looked up with a smile: "I sat by her side half an hour--what else was I doing the while? "What, sit by the side of a woman as fair as the sun in the sky, And look somewhere else lest the dazzle flash back from your own to her eye? "No, I hold that the speech of the tongue be as frank and as bold as the look, And I held up herself to herself,--that was more than she got from her book." "Young blood!" laughed the elder; "no doubt you are voicing the mode of To-Day: But then we old fogies at least gave the lady some chance for delay. "There's my wife (you must know),--we first met on the journey from Florence to Rome: It took me three weeks to discover who was she and where was her home; "Three more to be duly presented; three more ere I saw her again; And a year ere my romance BEGAN where yours ended that day on the train."