Can I with pleasure or with patience see

A boy at once so heartless and so free?”

But soon the kinsman heavy tidings told,

That love and prudence could no more withhold:

“Stephen, though steady at his desk, was grown

A rake and coxcomb - this he grieved to own;

His cousin left his church, and spent the day

Lounging about in quite a heathen way;

Sometimes he swore, but had indeed the grace

To show the shame imprinted on his face: