Prithee, prithee take me in!
From a world of care and sadness,
From its shadows and its sin,
For Love’s sake, with love and gladness,
Prithee, prithee take me in!
Ah! within that mansion holy,
May its nobler life begin?
Turn not from its pleadings lowly,
Prithee, prithee take me in!
Accompanying this playful but deeply earnest little strain—doubly earnest, as coming from Ida to Florence—was an explanatory letter. Ida Hamilton wrote thus: