CUERVO - Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

A CONTEMPORARY 411
His very serviceable suit of black
Was courtly once and conscientious still,
And many might bave worn it, tbougb none did:
The cloak tbat somewhat shone and shewed the threads
Had purpose, and the ruff, significance.
He walked and tapped the pavement with his cane,
Scenting the world, looking it full in face,
An old dog, bald and blindisb, at his heels.
They turned up, now, the alley by the churcb,
That leads no whither; now, tbey breathed themselves
On the main promenade just at the wrong time.
You'd come upon his scrutinising hat,
Making a peaked sbade blacker than itself
Against the single window spared some house
Intact yet with its mouldered Moorish work,-
Or else surprise the ferrel of his stick
Trying the mortar's temper 'tween the chinks
Of some new shop a-building, French and fine.
He stood and watched the cobbler at his trade,
The man who slices lemons into drink,
Tbe coffee-roaster's brazier, and the boys
That volunteer to help him turn its winch.
He glanced o'er books on stalls with half an eye,
And fly-leaf ballads on the vendors string,
And broad-edge bold-print posters by the wall.
He took such cognisance of men and things,
If any beat a borse, you felt he saw;
If any cursed a woman, he took note;
Yet stared at nobody,-they stared at him,
And found, less to their pleasure than surprise,
He seemed to know them and expect as much.
So, next time that a neighbour's tongue was loosed,
It marked the shameful and notorious fact,
We had among us, not so much a spy,
As a recording chief-inquisitor,
The town's true master if the town but knew 1
We merely kept a governor for form,
While this man walked about and took account
Of all thought, said, and acted, then went home,
And wrote it fully to our Lord the King
Who has an itcb to know things, he knows why,
And reads them in his bed-room of a nigbt.
Oh, you might smile 1 there wanted not a touch,
A tang of . . . well, it was not wholly ease
As back into your mind the man's look came­
Stricken in years a little,-such a brow
His eyes had to live under I-clear as flint
On either side the formidable nose
Curved, cut, and coloured, like an eagle's claw.
©Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia