IX — AT THE ALTAR-RAIL

“My bride is not coming, alas!” says the groom,

And the telegram shakes in his hand. “I own

It was hurried! We met at a dancing-room

When I went to the Cattle-Show alone,

And then, next night, where the Fountain leaps,

And the Street of the Quarter-Circle sweeps.

“Ay, she won me to ask her to be my wife -

‘ Twas foolish perhaps!— to forsake the ways

Of the flaring town for a farmer's life.

She agreed. And we fixed it. Now she says:

‘ It's sweet of you, dear, to prepare me a nest,

But a swift, short, gay life suits me best.

What I really am you have never gleaned;

I had eaten the apple ere you were weaned.’”