And now the ardent friends to greet each other Impatient fly, and pressing breast to breast They tenderly embrace, and with alternate kisses Their cheeks resound; then, clasping hands, they drop Plummet-like down upon the sofa, both Together. Seated thus, one flings a phrase, Subtle and pointed, at the other's heart, Hinting of certain things that rumor tells, And in her turn the other with a sting Assails. The lovely face of one is flushed With beauteous anger, and the other bites Her pretty lips a little; evermore At every instant waxes violent The anxious agitation of the fans. So, in the age of Turpin, if two knights Illustrious and well cased in mail encountered Upon the way, each cavalier aspired To prove the valor of the other in arms, And, after greetings courteous and fair, They lowered their lances and their chargers dashed Ferociously together; then they flung The splintered fragments of their spears aside, And, fired with generous fury, drew their huge, Two-handed swords and rushed upon each other! But in the distance through a savage wood The clamor of a messenger is heard, Who comes full gallop to recall the one Unto King Charles, and th' other to the camp Of the young Agramante. Dare thou, too, Dare thou, invincible youth, to expose the curls And the toupet, so exquisitely dressed This very morning, to the deadly shock Of the infuriate fans; to new emprises Thy fair invite, and thus the extreme effects Of their periculous enmity suspend. Is not this most charmingly done? It seems to me that the warlike interpretation of the scene is delightful; and those embattled fans--their perfumed breath comes down a hundred years in the verse! The cavalier and his lady now betake them to the promenade, where all the fair world of Milan is walking or driving, with a punctual regularity which still distinguishes Italians in their walks and drives. The place is full of their common acquaintance, and the carriages are at rest for the exchange of greetings and gossip, in which the hero must take his part. All this is described in the same note of ironical seriousness as the rest of the poem, and The Afternoon closes with a strain of stately and grave poetry which admirably heightens the desired effect: