Pausing by gate or stile, a pair

Loitered a bit on the threshold’s stone

For a sweet and fond good-night of their own.

It irks me, friend, that I must profane

The oath of the order and voice that chain

Of mystic letters: yet ’twere not kind

To take you thus far and leave you blind.

And I’ll whisper, you know, just heart to heart,

’Twas “One Kind Kiss Before We Part,”

The mystic grip was a warm hand-press,