With useless penitence perplexed and haunted;[AI]

Beseeching she no further would refuse,

When, lo! he stumbled o'er a pair of shoes.

CLXXXI.

A pair of shoes![81]—what then? not much, if they

Are such as fit with ladies' feet, but these

(No one can tell how much I grieve to say)

Were masculine; to see them, and to seize,

Was but a moment's act.—Ah! well-a-day!

My teeth begin to chatter, my veins freeze!