'T was five o'clock, and I could eat,
Although I could not pay, my meal;
I hasten back into the street
Where lies my inn, the best in Lille.
What see I on my table stand,—
A letter with a well-known seal?
'Tis grandmamma's! I know her hand,—
"To Mr. M. A. Titmarsh, Lille."
I feel a choking in my throat,
I pant and stagger, faint and reel!
It is—it is—a ten pound note,
And I'm no more in pawn at Lille!
[He goes off by the diligence that evening, and is restored to the bosom of his happy family.]
SHADOWS
Lantern
DEEP! I own I start at shadows,
Listen, I will tell you why;
(Life itself is but a taper,
Casting shadows till we die.)
Once, in Italy, at Florence,
I a radiant girl adored:
When she came, she saw, she conquered,
And by Cupid I was floored.
Round my heart her glossy ringlets
Were mysteriously entwined—
And her soft voluptuous glances
All my inmost thoughts divined.
"Mia cara Mandolina!
Are we not, indeed," I cried,
"All the world to one another?"
Mandolina, smiled and sighed.
Earth was Eden, she an angel,
I a Jupiter enshrined—
Till one night I saw a damning
DOUBLE SHADOW ON HER BLIND!