I made a visit, talk’d, and took my leave: Kind were the lady’s looks, her eyes were bright, And swam, I thought, in exquisite delight; A lovely red suffused the virgin cheek, And spoke more plainly than the tongue could speak; 570 Plainly all seem’d to promise love and joy, Nor fear’d we ought that might our bliss destroy. “Engaged by business, I one morn delay’d My usual call on the accomplish’d maid; But soon, that small impediment removed, I paid the visit that decisive proved; For the fair lady had, with grieving heart, So I believed, retired to sigh apart: I saw her friend, and begg’d her to entreat My gentle nymph her sighing swain to meet. 580 “The gossip gone--What dæmon, in his spite } To love and man, could my frail mind excite, } And lead me curious on, against all sense of right? } There met my eye, unclosed, a closet’s door-- Shame! how could I the secrets there explore? Pride, honour, friendship, love, condemn’d the deed, And yet, in spite of all, I could proceed! I went, I saw--Shall I describe the hoard Of precious worth in seal’d deposits stored Of sparkling hues? Enough--enough is told, 590 ’Tis not for man such mysteries to unfold. Thus far I dare--Whene’er those orbits swam In that blue liquid that restrain’d their flame, As showers the sunbeams--when the crimson glow Of the red rose o’erspread those cheeks of snow, I saw, but not the cause--’twas not the red Of transient blush that o’er her face was spread; ’Twas not the lighter red, that partly streaks The Catherine pear, that brighten’d o’er her cheeks, Nor scarlet blush of shame--but such disclose 600 The velvet petals of the Austrian rose, When first unfolded: warm the glowing hue, Nor cold as rouge, but deep’ning on the view. Such were those cheeks--the causes unexplored Were now detected in that secret hoard; And ever to that rich recess would turn My mind, and cause for such effect discern. Such was my fortune, O! my friends, and such The end of lofty hopes that grasp’d too much. This was, indeed, a trying time in life, 610 I lost at once a mother and a wife; Yet compensation came in time for these, And what I lost in joy, I gain’d in ease.”-- “But,” said the squire, “did thus your courtship cease? Resign’d your mistress her betroth’d in peace?”-- “Yes; and had sense her feelings to restrain, Nor ask’d me once my conduct to explain; But me she saw those swimming eyes explore, And explanation she required no more. Friend to the last, I left her with regret-- 620 Nay, leave her not, for we are neighbours yet. “These views extinct, I travell’d, not with taste, But so that time ran wickedly to waste; I penn’d some notes, and might a book have made,