Let other rulers hugely labour still

Beneath the burden of ambition's ill

Like caryatids heaving up the strain

Of mammoth chambers, till they stoop again ...

Your face has changed my days to splendid dreams

And baubled trumpets, traffics, and trirèmes;

One swift touch of your passion-parted lips

Is worth five armies and ten seas of ships."

Hildreth's applause was sweet. My heart almost burst with happiness within me, as those tiny hands, that had run through my hair and been so wonderful with me ... hands that I had kissed and fondled in secret—joined in unison with Penton's and Darrie's and Ruth's hand-claps.

"And now I will finish with the Song of Kaa, the Cave-Man," I announced ... it seemed that the poem was not, after all, in the bunch of MSS. I had brought along with me....