To make that friend a due return."
The Knight, with kindness, view'd the feeling,
Which poor Quæ Genus was revealing;
When, to cut short the pleasing pain
Which words were failing to explain,
He smiling bade him take his way
To the known duties of the day.
Of words there was a mute hiatus,
And of the noon-tide apparatus
The table quickly was bereft,
While with some new-born pamphlet left,
Sir Jeffery calmly was proceeding
To gratify his usual reading,
When our Quæ Genus bore away
The fragments of the lighten'd tray,
And sought his pantry's cool retreat,
Where, lolling on a welcome seat,
He let his busy fancy range
Throughout the unexpected change,
That did upon his fortune wait;
And still, though humble was his state,
Scarce could he think it a disaster
To wait the will of such a master;
Nor did his pride reluctant bend,
Since that same master was his friend.
All that indulgence could bestow
Sir Jeff'ry did not fail to show;
And, when alone, it seem'd to please
The knight to set him at his ease,
And shrink the distance to a span
Between the master and the man. |
—Nay, here it cannot be denied
That it was soothing to his pride
To lay the shoulder-knot aside. | } |
The liv'ried dress of red and brown
He thus was call'd on to disown:
In blue and buff, or buff and blue
He now appear'd to daily view.
The knight allow'd the taylor's art
By all its power to make him smart;
And Snip with his consummate skill,
In working drapery to his will,
By his contrivance gave the cape
A flow to soften down the shape,
So that the hump could scarce be said
His general figure to degrade,
Nor, to a common view, be seen
To indispose his pleasing mien. |
Thus did he sit and calmly bless
The hopes of promis'd happiness.