Because her eyes would shine Once when I praised her, Because her heart to mine, When I upraised her From the low garden chair, Beat for a moment's space With sudden, yielding grace While I just kiss'd her hair, Which nought amazed her; Soothed her with loving touch, Loving, but not too much, When on her little hand The buckle of her band Had lightly grazed her? Slowly our souls between Mists of reserve crept in-- I reck'd not, blindly-- A sister she became, O chill and veal-like name! A great deal less than kin, Much less than kindly. Then on the old sweet ways Of thoughtless, chummy days, Turning severely, Pride, hooded in dislike, Struck as a snake might strike, And, in the public gaze, Froze me austerely. Well, all is vanity; She'll disillusion'd be, And I--well, as for me, When these confusions Clear from my brain away, Back in my thoughts I'll stray Where sunbeams ever play On lost illusions. * * * * * [Illustration: ONE THING AT A TIME. _Genial Master (under the painful necessity of discharging his Coachman)._ "I'M AFRAID, SIMMONS, WE MUST PART. THE FACT IS, I COULDN'T HELP NOTICING THAT SEVERAL TIMES DURING THE LAST MONTH YOU HAVE BEEN--SOBER; AND I DON'T BELIEVE A MAN CAN ATTEND PROPERLY TO THE DRINK IF HE HAS DRIVING TO DO!"] * * * * * TO A SCORCHER. 'ARRY, 'ARRY SMITH DE SMITH, As wheelman you would win renown! You are the country districts' pest, You are the nuisance of the town: You're wan and wild and dust-defiled; You think you're awfully admired. Though winner of a hundred "pots," Your fame is not to be desired. 'ARRY, 'ARRY SMITH DE SMITH, You whirl and whisk about the lands. With shoulders bowed, with lowered pate, And dull eyes fixed upon your hands. Oh! take some interest in the scene, Love birds that sing and flowers that blow; Try not to be a mere machine, And let the record-squelcher go! * * * * * A LITTLE LESS THAN M'KINLEY, BUT MORE THAN UNKIND.--President CLEVELAND has had to allow the Gorman Act to become law without formally assenting to it. He has had, in fact, to swallow what he would fain reject, an act of involuntary political Gormandising which must be unpleasant. * * * * * THAT ADVANCED WOMAN! (_A Symposium à la Mode._) [Sidenote: The Author of "A Saddis Aster" confesses.]