“About who?” cried he, springing to his feet and dropping his poet on the floor.
“Evidently you recollect! Nullum numen abest si sit Prudentia——”
“Curiously enough, I’ve just been having a shot at a rendering of that couplet,” said Mr Davenport. As he spoke he approached the window: I sat down on the sill outside and lit a cigar.
“Curiously enough indeed!” said I. “May I be privileged to hear it?”
He threw out one arm and recited—
“ ‘All Heaven’s with us, so we Prudence win:
If Fortune’s hailed a goddess, ours the sin!’ ”
“Pretty well for the spirit, but none too faithful to the letter,” I remarked critically. “However, Dr Johnson is open to the same objection. You remember—
“ ‘Celestial Wisdom calms the mind,
And makes the happiness she does not find.’ ”
“I call that pretty bad.”
“Not much to the present point, anyhow,” I agreed.