A lily is not sweet from learning. Jane looked like a dark lantern, burning. Outwardly dark, unkempt, uncouth, But minded like the living truth, A friend that nothing shook nor wearied. She was not "Darling Jan'd," nor "dearie'd," She was all prickles to the touch, So sharp, that many feared to clutch, So keen, that many thought her bitter. She let the little sparrows twitter. She had a hard ungracious way. Her storm of hair was iron-grey, And she was passionate in her heart For women's souls that burn apart, Just as her mother's had, with Squire. She gave the sense of smouldering fire. She was not happy being a maid, At home, with Squire, but she stayed Enduring life, however bleak, To guard her sisters who were weak, And force a life for them from Squire. And she had roused and stood his fire A hundred times, and earned his hate, To win those two a better state. Long years before the Canon's son Had cared for her, but he had gone To Klondyke, to the mines, for gold, To find, in some strange way untold A foreign grave that no men knew. No depth, nor beauty, was in Lu, But charm and fun, for she was merry, Round, sweet and little like a cherry, With laughter like a robin's singing; She was not kittenlike and clinging, But pert and arch and fond of flirting, In mocking ways that were not hurting, And merry ways that women pardoned. Not being married yet she gardened. She loved sweet music; she would sing Songs made before the German King Made England German in her mind. She sang "My lady is unkind," "The Hunt is up," and those sweet things Which Thomas Campion set to strings, "Thrice toss," and "What," and "Where are now?" The next to come was Major Howe Driv'n in a dog-cart by a groom. The testy major was in fume To find no hunter standing waiting; The groom who drove him caught a rating, The groom who had the horse in stable, Was damned in half the tongues of Babel. The Major being hot and heady When horse or dinner was not ready. He was a lean, tough, liverish fellow, With pale blue eyes (the whites pale yellow), Mustache clipped toothbrush-wise, and jaws Shaved bluish like old partridge claws. When he had stripped his coat he made A speckless presence for parade, New pink, white cords, and glossy tops New gloves, the newest thing in crops, Worn with an air that well expressed His sense that no one else was dressed. THE DOCTOR [Illustration: Came Doctor Frome of Quickemshow]