So pass I every midnight hour
Before her lonely dwelling,
Once, only once, and never more,
The fairy lass was willing.
And since I drew that honeyed kiss
My heart's been drunken all with bliss--
Ah, just once more, my treasure,
Fill me a brimming measure!
'That's enough of such indelicate allusions, now, Mr. Bacchus,' says
she; 'you know very well that their High Mightinesses keep me strictly
locked up, and don't allow me to admit anyone at all.' 'Not even me,
dear Rosie,' said he; 'ah, I think they would wink at it if you let me
in now and then for a taste at your lips.' 'You're a rogue,' she
answered, 'and little better than a Turk. I should like to know how
many sweethearts you want. I know of your goings on with those
frivolous French girls, Miss Champagne, (who has no more colour in her
face than a dried pea,) and Fräulein von Bordeaux, the sickly minx. Ah,
you have not the true Rhinelander's heart, nor understand the
Rhinelander's love.' 'Pooh, my dear,' says he, 'I have visited these
ladies occasionally, and amused myself with their wit, but nothing
else; rest assured, my dearest, my heart is thine alone.' 'And then I
fancy,' she went on, 'that I have heard some stories from Spain. Of
poor Lady Xeres I will say nothing, (that's too well-known a story for
you to deny); but how about the Señorina Dentilla di Rosa, Señorina San
Lucar, and Señora Ximenes--a married lady too?' 'You carry your
jealousy too far,' said he, with some asperity. 'I don't see why one
should give up one's old connexions. As for the Señora Ximenes, I
merely visit her out of kindness to you as being your relation.' 'Our
relation?' muttered Rosa and the others, 'how's that?' 'Don't you
know,' he continued, 'that she is originally from the Rhine? The most
excellent hidalgo, Don Ximenes, took her from thence to his home in
Spain when she was a very tender maid, and there she settled, and
naturally took his family name. But she preserves with the Spanish
sweetness much of the true German character, especially in colour and
scent.' 'Long life to her, then,' cried they all, 'if she really is
Rosie's cousin.' Rosa did not seem quite satisfied with her
sweetheart's cunning mode of extricating himself from the scrape, so
she changed the subject by turning round to the others and rallying
them each in turn on the way in which the years had treated or spared
them. One looked pale, she said, another was but half awake, a third
had grown fat, almost too lazy to drink, a fourth was as ready for a
joke as ever, and so on--'but hallo, why there are thirteen of you.
Who's that in the strange clothing over there? who brought him in?'
_Was I frightened or not?_ None of them looked pleased at my presence:
but I said, 'I present my compliments to this worthy assemblage; I am
really nothing but a man, who has taken a degree of Ph.D., and at
present my residence is at the Frankfurt hotel in this city.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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