Oh, the dancing of the belles, Silver belles! What a world of merriment that glancing group foretells. How they dance, dance, dance, In the white and heated light, Till the berries that o’ersprinkle Every picture seem to twinkle With a crystalline delight. Keeping time, time, time, To the valse-exciting rhyme Of Der Schönen Blauen Donau that so musically wells; Oh, the belles, belles, belles, belles, Belles, belles, belles, Oh, the dancing and the glancing of the belles. II. Oh, the court-invited belles, Golden belles! What a world of plush and paint their dazzling grandeur tells. Through the balmy air of night, Through a vision of delight, From the jarring city notes Out of tune, What a splendid vision floats To the eyes of Miss Fitz-Neotes Of Aroon! Oh the crushing and the rout, And the gathers that come out! How the agony voluminously wells, How it swells! How it dwells! On the temper how it tells! To what anger it impels. Oh, the rushing and the crushing of the belles! Of the belles, belles, belles, belles, Belles, belles, belles, Oh, the tearing and despairing of the belles! III. Oh, the belles of the Mabille, Brazen belles! What a world of lying love their honied accent tells. In the glare and in the light How they dance out their delight, Thinking of the future never, Dancing on and dancing ever, With a weary simulation of a love they cannot feel, In the glare and in the glitter and the hell of the Mabille. Leaping higher, higher, higher, With a desperate desire, And a resolute endeavour Now――now to win or never, Golden youth! Oh, the belles, belles, belles, What a tale their laughing tells Of despair. How they dance, dance, dance, With a weary smile and glance, In the glare and in the glitter that are there! Yet the eye it fully knows By the sighing Lips and dying How the hoping ebbs and flows. Yet the eye distinctly tells How the hoping sinks and swells, By the dancing, and the glancing, and the prancing of the belles, Of the belles―― Of the belles, belles, belles, belles, Belles, belles, belles, By the sighing lips and dying of the belles. BENJAMIN D――――. _His Little Dinner_, 1876. ――――:o:―――― THE BILLS.