She flashed the phrase along the wires, Then, passing by a dagger-shop, Bought one and wiped it on her sire's Best graduated razor-strop. On second thoughts, she said, I lean To poison; true, a knife like this Looks pretty, rib and rib between, But people very often miss. She sought the chemist in his place; He sampled her with searching eye; She looked him frankly in the face, And told a wicked, wicked lie. "My hen," she said,--"a bantam blend-- Has hatched a poor demented chick; To ease the gentle creature's end I want a pint of arsenic." The chemist deemed the order large, But said no thing and drew the drug; She seized and bore the sacred charge Before her in a pewter mug. At tea she faced her fell intent; Dressing, she lightly laughed at doom; Dined with the family, and spent The evening in the drawing-room. At ten the early rooster crowed; Ten-thirty struck and she was gone; She crossed alone the naked road; The road had really nothing on. Her golden braids hung down her back; Within her side she felt a stitch; And once the moon behind the wrack Came out and caught her in a ditch. Once ere she reached the trysting-pear She broke the slumber of the rooks; She wrung her hands, she tore her hair, And did as people do in books. From out her cloak she fetched the drug-- "Thy health, my love, in Heaven or Hell!" Deep to the dregs she drained the mug And dropped it, feeling far from well. Upon the punctual stroke her fond True lover kept the oath he swore; Plunged softly in the village pond, But feeling chilly swam ashore. Next morning in the judgment-place Two pallid prisoners were tried; Their guilt was plain; it was a case Of ineffective suicide. Yestreen a member of the Force Had found a woman deadly sick, Lamenting, with sincere remorse, An overdose of arsenic. Another heard upon his beat One darkly muttering, "This is Hell!" His weed was wet from head to feet; He put him in a common cell. The Justice chewed the evidence; His eyes were soft, his lips were bland; It was, he said, a first offence; He merely gave a reprimand. "Go free, my poppets, keep the laws, And get ye wed at once," said he; The court indulged in rude applause; The usher cleared the gallery. The prison-warder, deeply stirred, Approached the culprits at the bar; Then haled them forth without a word Towards the nearest Registrar. RICHARD. John, you surpass yourself. Next week Expect a flattering critique! JOHN. The waits are whining in the cold With clavicorn and clarigold; They play them like a crumpled horn, The clarigold and clavicorn. 7. AN ODE TO SPRING IN THE METROPOLIS. (AFTER R. LE G.)