And the old Italian frauds," he said;

"But the little something that means so much

Still waits;" and he gave an anguished clutch

At his mop-crowned head.

He went to the further side of the room

And flecked the canvas with daubs of mud;

He wiped it down with a housemaid's broom,

And gummed in the middle a jackdaw's plume

And a ha'penny stud.

He put on his motor-bicycling mask,