Page:The Bab Ballads.djvu/169

Rh "Two dukes would make their a bride,
 * And from her foes defend her"—

"Well, not exactly that," they cried,
 * "We offer guilty splendour.

"We do not offer marriage rite,
 * So please dismiss the notion!"

"Oh, dear," said she, "that alters quite
 * The state of my emotion."

The earl he up, and says, says he,
 * "Dismiss them to their orgies,

For I am game to marry thee
 * Quite reg'lar at St. George's."

He'd had, it happily befell,
 * A decent education,

His views would have befitted well
 * A far superior station.

His sterling worth had worked a cure,
 * She never heard him grumble;

She saw his soul was good and pure
 * Although his rank was humble.