"I don't know my Dante anybody. Who was she, or he, whichever it is?" "It's a piece of poetry, of course." "There's no 'of course' about it." "Well it is at any rate." "Go on, Carrie, and spout. You're dying to give it to us, I can see," urged Marjorie. Carrie, who was in the elocution class and loved reciting, did not wait to be asked twice. Secure of an even moderately willing audience she began: THE BLESSED DAMOZEL The blessed damozel leaned out From the gold bar of Heaven; Her eyes were deeper than the depth Of waters stilled at even; She had three lilies in her hand, And the stars in her hair were seven. Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem, No wrought flowers did adorn, But a white rose of Mary's gift, For service meetly worn; Her hair that lay along her back Was yellow like ripe corn. "Now it _is_ like her, isn't it?" she inquired at the end of the second stanza. "Shall I say you any more?" "No, thanks" (some of the girls were moving hastily away). "That's quite enough. Yes, perhaps it is like Regina, if you look quite at the romantic side of her. Her hair is 'yellow like ripe corn', and her eyes, of course, are the main part about her. All the same, she's too substantial somehow for me to imagine her leaning out over any gold bar of Heaven. I'd be afraid she'd break it. She must weigh more than I do, and I'm eight stone--nearly! I was weighed at the station yesterday on the automatic machine." "Well, if you're going to reckon attraction by lack of weight, I suppose you'd admire a living skeleton." "Not at all, but I can't quite reconcile gold bars of Heaven with twenty-six inches round the waist." "Some people haven't the soul to appreciate poetry properly." "That's true," chirped Ermie unabashed. "I dare say the Miss Miltons voted 'that poem of Dad's' awful slow. It was certainly 'Paradise Lost' to them to have to sit and write at his dictation when they probably wanted to be out picking blackberries or feeding the hens. I've always felt sorry for those three girls. I hope they all found decent husbands, poor dears! The literature book doesn't tell us any more about them, and they're far more interesting to me than their stern old father. When I write a literature book, I shall put things in their proper focus. 'Celebrities from a Girl's Point of View' I mean to call it. Yes, I'm in earnest! Don't snigger, all of you! I'll publish it some day and then you'll just see. Oh yes, glorify Regina into 'the Blessed Damozel' if you like. I don't mind what names you call her. 'Blessed Damson' would do for me. Ta-ta!"