BROKEN BONDS.
["I learn from St. Petersburg, that, last Saturday, conferences were begun between Russia and Germany on the admission of the former to the new commercial treaties."—The Times Paris Correspondent on "Russia and the Central Commercial League."]
La Belle France, the Forsaken One, loquitur:—
What do I hear? Oh, do I hear aright,
Over the garden wall?
My latest love, my gallant Muscovite,
Is this the end, this all?
My heartbeats fast, a mist obscures my sight.
Support me, or I fall!
What can he mean? Whatever is she at?—
Ah! well I know her game!
GERMANIA is a vile coquette, a cat.
Seducing my new flame
With mercenary lures, and low at that!
It is a cruel shame!
But six short months ago and I to him
Indeed seemed all in all.
A stalwart lover, though tant soit peu grim,
I fancied him my thrall.
And was it after all pretence, or whim?
Oh, prospect, to appal!
I know my envious rivals said as much,[1]
But that I deemed their spite,
Was't but my money he desired to clutch?
I lent it—with delight!
Were his mere venal vows? His bonds but such
As SAMSON snapped at sight?
See how she purrs, false puss! She deems her dot
May well out-glitter mine.
And he! That slow seductive smile I know.
At Cronstadt by the brine,
To that dear dulcet voice, not long ago,
My ears did I incline.
Ah! and those fine moustachios' conquering curl
Subdued my maiden heart.
For me those tendril-tips he'd twist and twirl,
Looking so gay, so smart;
And now he does it for another girl,
And I—I stand apart.
Did I not give my heart to him—false one!—
And also—well, my "stocking"?
Nor after her "commercial" charms he'll run,
My modest beauties mocking.
Hist! I believe of me they're making fun!
O Ciel! 'tis simply shocking!
Hist! I can hear her, the sly cat. How fond
Her glances bold and bright!
Her bag is brimming, mine's a broken bond.
I dreamed not me he'd slight
For such mere bagman beauty, tamely blonde,
But—ah! was BLOWITZ right?
[Left doubting.
Footnote 1: [(return)]
"The success of a Russian Loan is not dearly purchased by a little effusion, which, after all, commits Russia to nothing." (See Cartoon "Turning the Tables," Sept. 26, 1891.)
