Punch (78.1880)

158

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[April 10, 1880

SWEET GIRL GRADUATES,

(See Mr. Gladstone's Letter in reply to Mary Steadman Aldis’s Petition,
Daily News, March 15.)

A storm was coming-, but men’s minds were still,

And. in tbe dim tracts of Utopia’s land,

At Merlin’s feet the would-be Graduate prayed.

For, yielding to bis kindlier moods, the Sage

Had watched her at her petulance and play,
Even when they seemed unloveable, and laughed
As those that watch a kitten; thus he grew
Tolerant of what he half disdained., and she,
Perceiving that she was but half disdained,
.Began to break her sports with graver fits,—
Turn wholly blue; and thus she clung to him
Fixt in her will; and so the terms went by.