That their own fleece serves for natural fur-suit)

He was contrasting, 'twas plain from his gesture,

The life of the lady so flower-like and delicate

With the loathsome squalor of this helicat.

I, in brief, was the man the Duke beckoned

From out of the throng, and while I drew near

He told the crone—as I since have reckoned

By the way he bent and spoke into her ear

With circumspection and mystery—

The main of the lady's history,