(By a Fiancé à la Mode.)
["... The women they might have married—the girls whom they danced with when they were youths—have grown too old for our middle-aged suitors."—Standard.]
I'm just engaged: I'm forty-five—
Our modern prime for wedded blisses.
The age par excellence to wive
With blooming fin-de-siècle Misses;
I'm very happy; so's my Love;
I don't regret that long I've tarried;—
And yet I can't help thinking of
The damozels I might have married.