Who  comes  to  pay  you  homage  chaste,
Pleading  for  smiles  with  eager  haste,
Hour  by  hour  the  tale  to  repeat
Of  life-long  love's  delusions  sweet  —
Strewing  his  wealth  around  your  feet,
Counting  as  naught  its  royal  waste
So  you  bid  him  no  more  entreat,
Smile  assent  to  his  ardent  claim,
Yield  your  beauties  to  be  embraced,
And  your  hand  for  his  gems  aflame,
And  haughtily  wear  his  name  ?


22  PA  ULINE.
None  come  ;  but  when  you  idly  dream

Beside  your  lattice,  too  wrapt  to  seem

Observant  of  the  throngs  you  view,

Vile  lechers  fix  their  gaze  on  you,

As  they  lounge  past,  fresh  from  their  lairs,

And  ponder  on  what  common  snares

May  best  suffice  to  work  your  ill.
They  leer  upon  you,  foul  with  lust,

Until  their  red  eyes  feast  their  fill,

And  gorge  you  with  disgust.
You  cannot  move  for  lurking  foes ;

The  dreary  shadow  of  repose

That  Fate  yet  leaves  you  they  would  slay.
They  weave  their  toils  around  your  way

As  hunters  cast  their  nets  for  prey.
Their  smiles  are  false,  their  words  are  lies,

The  honeyed  things  they  sometimes  say

Are  Hell's  suggestions  in  disguise  ;

There  are  no  fiends  more  base  than  they  —

Your  abject  ruin  is  their  prize.
Such  is  the  fruit  your  beauty  bears ;

It  girds  you  round  about  with  snares.
PA  ULINE.  23

Not  so  does  Fortune  deal  with  all.
Others  to  sumptuous  homes  are  born ;
On  pleasant  paths  their  footsteps  fall
From  the  first  flush  of  childhood's  morn
Till  the  autumn  of  their  stormless  days
Fades  out  like  sunset's  dying  blaze.
Life  to  them  is  all  in  all.
