III.
FROM MR. RUFUS FOX TO HIS COUSIN REYNARD.
Friday.
Dear Cousin, just a line
To ask if you will come to dine
(Informally, you know) with me
To-morrow afternoon at three.
Now don’t refuse, whate’er you do,
I have a treat in store for you:
A charming goose (and geese, you know,
Do not on all the bushes grow!)
A dream of tenderness in white,
A case of “hunger at first sight.”
I know, old boy, you’ll not be deaf
To this inducement.
Yours,
R. F.
P. S.—Miss Goose agrees to be
Beside the hollyhocks at three!