Page:Halleck.djvu/116

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96
AN EPISTLE TO * * * *.

With a cork for a dolphin, a Cockney Arion;
Whether roaming earth, ocean, or even the air,
Like Dan O’Rourke’s eagle—good luck to you there.

For myself, as you’ll see by the date of my letter,
I’m in town, but of that fact the least said the better;
For ’tis vain to deny (though the city o’erflows
With well-dressed men and women, whom nobody knows)
That one rarely sees persons whose nod is an honor,
A lady with fashion’s own impress upon her;
Or a gentleman blessed with the courage to say,
Like Morris (the Prince Regent’s friend, in his day),
“Let others in sweet shady solitudes dwell,
Oh! give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall.”

Apropos—our friend A. chanced this morning to meet
The accomplished Miss B. as he passed Contoit’s Garden,12
Both in town in July!—he crossed over the street,
And she entered the rouge-shop of Mrs. St. Martin.13
Resolved not to look at another known face,
Through Leonard and Church Streets she walked to Park Place,
And he turned from Broadway into Catharine Lane,
And coursed, to avoid her, through alley and by-street,
Till they met, as the devil would have it, again,
Face to face, near the pump at the corner of Dey Street.