And so I stay'd, and presently besought
To know their prospects. Then the maiden said,
"I'm fifteen now;" the gallant, he replied,
"And thirty, I." Whereon methought at first
That he did somewhat overstate his case,
Though she seem'd rather underneath the mark.
But when they said that she was thirty-two,
And, next, that he was forty, I perceived
They told of other things than length of years;
Since mortals' ages, e'en at census time,