Who said that each the other loved;

And thus debating, yes and no,

And half in earnest, as it proved,

We bargained to pretend ’twas so.

Two sceptic children of the world,

Each with a heart engraven o’er

With broken love-knots, quaintly curled,

Of hot flirtations held before;

Yet, somehow, either seemed to find,

This time, a something more akin