And now on this warm, quiet, flyful afternoon, and still considerably upset over my morning on the trout stream with Thusis, I found myself at my table, abandoning myself to an orgy of self-expression in verse.
Having slammed the door I now returned to my poem; and first I carefully re-read as much of it as I had accomplished:
To THUSIS
I
Slender girl with eyes of gray—
Charming mystery called Thusis—
Teach me all your lore, I pray!—
How your loveliness seduces—
How each dimple has its uses
Leading men like me astray!
II
You display in gay array
Deadly charms, without excuses;
Are they fashioned to betray
Hearts unwary, naughty Thusis?
Are your russet hairs but nooses
To ensnare some soul distrait?
III
Love's a tyrant, sages say;
What he chains he never looses,
Making slaves of grave and gay,
Dashing blades and gray recluses,
Snaring with a thousand ruses
One and all, alackaday!
ENVOI
Cupid's sway the very deuce is!
His caprices and abuses
All endure and all obey.
Laugh away my pretty Thusis
He'll get you some summer day!
I re-read the Envoi with satisfaction born of the pride of prophecy. Also, no doubt, some slight personal bitterness gave an agreeable tang to the couplets.
"Clever,—very clever," said I, dotting a few i's and crossing several t's. And, feeling better, I laid away the poem and began to walk up and down the room exhilarated by my own genius.
"When a man," said I, "can turn out such verses"—I snapped my fingers—"just like that!—he is in little danger of any sentimental subjugation."
As I turned, my glance chanced to fall on The Laughing Girl, and, for the first time, I thought I noticed a faint and delicate malice in her laughing eyes.
"Good heavens," said I to myself, "how vividly she resembles Thusis!"
Oddly enough as I continued to walk to and fro in my room I began to feel a trifle less gay, less confident regarding my prophetic poem depicting the sentimental fate of Thusis.
"She's really very lovely," thought I, "and three-quarters devil. She'll do mischief to man, yet. Probably she's already done a good deal to some poor young man.... Poor simpleton! ... Unhappy simp!"