Page:Ballads of a Bohemian.djvu/49

Rh over me a desire to write. C’était plus fort que moi. So instead of going to the Folies Bergère I spent all evening in the Omnium Bar near the Bourse, and wrote the following:

Oh, it’s pleasant sitting here, Seeing all the people pass; You beside your bock of beer, I behind my demi-tasse. Chatting of no matter what. You the Mummer, I the Bard; Oh, it’s jolly, is it not?— Sitting on the Boulevard.

More amusing than a book, If a chap has eyes to see; For, no matter where I look, Stories, stories jump at me. Moving tales my pen might write; Poems plain on every face; Monologues you could recite With inimitable grace.

(Ah! Imagination’s power) See yon demi-mondaine there. Idly toying with a flower. Smiling with a pensive air… Well, her smile is but a mask. For I saw within her muff