And they break the Decalogue to bits in five exhaustive Acts."
"That might be good," said B.; "but I've a little thing, I guess,
Which ought to take precedence, a novel in MS.;
With characters so deftly drawn in all their changing scenes,
That Thackeray and Dickens must be knocked to smithereens."
But C. broke in; his hair was long, his eyes were very wild,
He was in truth a strangely-garbed and most poetic child;
Said he, "Your plays and novels may all be very well,
But I've an epic poem here on Happiness in Hell."
And D., the pretty lyricist, he hummed and then he hawed,