And—deeper pit—pax vobiscum—went to vespers
With Adelaide Anne Procter; helped Bob Browning elope
With Elizabeth and her lapdog (said it bit him)
Said he was the first man Blake told
All about the angels in a pear-tree at Peckham Rye
Blake drew them for him, he said; they were grackles, not angels—
(Blake's not a mid-Victorian, but you don't know better)
So ... we come, being slightly irritated, to facing him down.
"... And George Eliot?" we ask lightly.
"Roomed with him," nodded Rainuv confidently,