Page:Halleck.djvu/172

And stories woven of sorrows and misfortunes
Are bad enough in prose, and worse in rhyme:
Mine, therefore, must be brief. Under protest
His notes remain—the wise can guess the rest.

clxv.

************

clxvi.

For two whole days they were the common talk;

The party, and the failure, and all that,
The theme of loungers in their morning walk,
Porter-house reasoning, and tea-table chat.
The third, some newer wonder came to blot them,
And on the fourth, the "meddling world" forgot them.

clxvii.

Anxious, however, something to discover,

I passed their house—the shutters were all closed;
The song of knocker and of bell was over;
Upon the steps two chimney-sweeps reposed;
And on the door my dazzled eyebeam met
These cabalistic words—"this house to let."