SOCIAL AMENITIES

I am getting on well with this anecdote,

When suddenly I recall

The many times I have told it of old,

And all the worked-up phrases, and the dying fall

Of voice, well timed in the crisis, the note

Of mock-heroic ingeniously struck —

The whole thing sticks in my throat,

And my face all tingles and pricks with shame

For myself and my hearers.

These are the social pleasures, my God!

But I finish the story triumphantly all the same.