‘Such a maid as was never seen?
She passed, though I cried to her, “Wait.”
Ah, me! but it might have been!
‘I cried, “O my Flower, my Queen,
Be mine!” ’Twas precipitate,’
Quoth the little blue mandarin.
‘But then ... she was just sixteen,
Long-eyed—as a lily straight—
Ah, me! but it might have been!
‘As it was, from her palankeen,