(Of which they told us as we came along)

As inadvertency—my way of life

Busied enough, if not too much, with men

To care for them in crowd on holidays,

When business stands, and neither they nor I

Gaping about can profit one another;

And therefore, by your leave—but only so—

I fain would linger in this quiet place

Till evening, under whose dusky cloak

I may creep unobserved to Antioch.