Now harems being very lonely places, Hemm'd in with bolts and bars on every side, The fifty-two who shared Te-pott's embraces Were glad to see a stranger, though a bride-- And so received her with their gentlest graces, And questions--though the questions are implied, For ladies, from Great Britain to the Tropics, Are very orthodox in their choice of topics. They ask'd her, who was married? who was dead? What were the newest things in silks and ivories? And had Y--Y--, who had eloped with Z--, Been yet forgiven? and _had_ she seen his liveries? And weren't they something between grey and red? And hadn't Z's papa refused to give her his? So Hy-son told them everything she knew And all was very well a day or two. But, when the Multifarious forsook Bo-hea, Pe-koe, and Wiry-leaf'd Gun-pow-der, To revel in the lip and sunny look Of the young stranger; spite of all they'd vow'd her, The ladies each with jealous anger shook, And rail'd against the simple maid aloud--Ah! This woman's pride is a fine thing to tell us of-- But a small matter serves her to be jealous of. One said she was indecorously florid-- One thought "she only squinted, nothing more--" A third, convulsively pronounced her "horrid "-- While Bo-hea, who was _low_ (at four-and-four), Glanced from her fingers up at Hy-son's forehead, Who, inkling such a tendency before, Cared for no rival's nails--but paid--I own, Particular attention to her own. Well, this was bad enough; but worse than this Were the attentions of our ancient hero, Whose frequent vow, and frequenter caress, Unwelcome were for any one to hear, who Had charms for better pleasure than a kiss From feeble dotard ten degrees from zero. So, as one does when circumstances harass one, Hy-son began to draw up a comparison. "Was ever maiden so abused as I am? Teazed into such a marriage--then to be Dosed with my husband twenty times _per diem_, With _repetetur haustus_ after tea! And, if he should die, what can I get by him? A jointure's nothing among fifty-three! I'm meek enough--but this I can _not_ bear-- I wish: I wish:--I wish a girl might swear!" In such a mood, she--(stop! I'll mend my pen; For now all our preliminaries _are_ done, And I am come unto the crisis, when Her fate depends on a kind reader's pardon)-- Wandering forth beyond the ladies' ken, She thought she spied a male face in the garden-- She hasten'd thither--she was not mistaken, For sure enough, a man was there a-raking. A man complete he was who own'd the visage, A man of thirty-three, or may-be longer-- So young, she could not well distinguish his age-- So old, she knew he had one day been younger. Now thirty-three, although a very nice age, Is not so nice as twenty, twenty-one, or So; but of lovers when a lady's caught one, She seldom stops to stipulate what sort o' one.