Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/63

Rh It was a misdirected wire,

Her husband was at Shaitanpore.

She spread her anger, hot as fire,

Through six thin foreign sheets or more,

Sent off that letter, wrote another

To her solicitor—and mother.

Then Belial Machiavelli saw

Her error and, I trust, his own,

Wired to the minion of the Law,

And travelled wifeward—not alone.

For Lilly—thirteen-two and bay—

Came in a horse-box all the way.

There was a scene—a weep or two—

With many kisses. Austen Jane

Rode Lilly all the season through,

And never opened wires again.

She races now with Belial... This

Is very sad, but so it is.



THE BALLAD OF FISHER'S BOARDING-HOUSE

WAS Fultah Fisher's boarding-house,

Where sailor-men reside,

And there were men of all the ports

From Mississip to Clyde,

And regally they spat and smoked,

And fearsomely they lied.

