110 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A SLIM GILT SOUL 
 
FEW men are given, ’twixt heaven and hell, 
To play one part supremely well. 
On all time’s tablets there are few 
Who make a first-rate show of two, 
While those who perfectly play three 
We knew not, until you were he. 
 
For what were lovelier on the lawn 
Than you, pearl-naked to the dawn, 
Wrapped in a scarlet dressing-gown 
Not thirty miles from London town, 
The “ observed of all observers ”—save 
That Scotland Yard, serene and suave, 
When trouble came, went tramping by ;   
Closed one, and winked the other eye. 
 
How pleasantly you must have smiled :   
“ I left them, and I left them wild ” :   
Though certainly they had abhorred 
The task of locking up a lord. 
For a more tragic rôle you played 
Your master neatly who betrayed. 
His shame and torture turned your leer 
To a snarl !—your drab’s smile to a sneer,