When with the matrons Sybil first sat down,

To cut for partners and to stake her crown,

This to the youthful maid preferment seem’d,

Who thought what woman she was then esteem’d;

But in few years, when she perceived, indeed,

The real woman to the girl succeed,

No longer tricks and honours fill’d her mind,

But other feelings, not so well defined;

She then reluctant grew, and thought it hard

To sit and ponder o’er an ugly card;