CUERVO - Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

400 MEN AND WOl\1EN
LVIII
RESPECTABILITY
1
DEAR, had the world in its caprice
Deigned to proclaim" I know you hoth,
Have recognised your plighted troth,
Am sponsor for you-live in peace 1"­
How many precious months and years
Of youth had passed, that speed so fast,
Before we found it out at last,
The world, and what it fears?
2
How much of priceless life were spent
With men that every virtue decks,
And women models of their sex,
Society's true ornament,-
Ere we dared wander, nights like this,
Thro' wind and rain, and watch the Seine,
And feel the Boulevart break again
To warmth and light and bliss?
3
I know I the world proscribes not love;
Allows my finger to caress
Your lip's conlour and downiness,
Provided it supply a glove.
The world's good word I-the Institute I
Guizot receives Montalembert !
Eh? do,vn lhe court three lampions flare­
Put forward your best foot I
LIX
A LIGHT WOMAN
1
So far as our story approaches the end,
\Vhich do you pity tbe most of us three ?­
My friend, or the mistress of my friend
With her wanton eyes, or me ?
©Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia