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Page 54
I was meaning to have somewhat to say about Alcuin, and had
intended to pay my respects to Canute, Alfred, the Abbot of St.
Albans, the Archbishop of Salzburg, the Prior of Dover, and
other mediaeval worthies, when Judge Methuen came in and
interrupted the thread of my meditation. The Judge brings me
some verses done recently by a poet-friend of his, and he asks me
to give them a place in these memoirs as illustrating the vanity
of human confidence.
One day I got a missive
Writ in a dainty hand,
Which made my manly bosom
With vanity expand.
'T was from a ``young admirer''
Who asked me would I mind
Sending her ``favorite poem''
``In autograph, and signed.''
She craved the boon so sweetly
That I had been a churl
Had I repulsed the homage
Of this gentle, timid girl;
With bright illuminations
I decked the manuscript,
And in my choicest paints and inks
My brush and pen I dipt.
Indeed it had been tedious
But that a flattered smile
Played on my rugged features
And eased my toil the while.
I was assured my poem
Would fill her with delight--
I fancied she was pretty--
I knew that she was bright!
And for a spell thereafter
That unknown damsel's face
With its worshipful expression
Pursued me every place;
Meseemed to hear her whisper:
``O, thank you, gifted sir,
For the overwhelming honor
You so graciously confer!''
But a catalogue from Benjamin's
Disproves what things meseemed--
Dispels with savage certainty
The flattering dreams I dreamed;
For that poor ``favorite poem,''
Done and signed in autograph,
Is listed in ``Cheap Items''
At a dollar-and-a-half.
End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of The Love Affairs Of A Bibliomaniac
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