Just met as neighbours, still disposed to meet;
Just learn’d the current tales of Dowling Street; 40
And were just thinking of our female friends,
Saying—‘You know not what the man intends,
A rich, kind, hearty’—and it might be true
Something he wish’d, but had not time to do—
A cold ere yet the falling leaf! of small
Effect till then, was fatal in the fall;
And of that house was his possession brief—
Go; and guard well against the falling leaf.