It is a poem in itself! It shines
Like the soft sheen on Tasso's velvet lines.
What can have led you to forego an age
When life was an illuminated page
From some superb romance?
Gioconda.
And what, I wonder, Can have torn you and your rich time asunder?
Hilda.
I'll tell you, for I'm sure you'll sympathise.
I have a lover...
Gioconda.
That is no surprise.
Hilda.
And by the post this morning came a letter—