30e The Fatal Spot. [Sept. 



Was full of fears, and could not now abide-j-rrtf .trn* n*.S 

 , The sweet Cecilia from her sofa's side. 

 The doctor thought again, and, if 'twas true, ♦ n':^.:?. 1 



She was Sir Charles's sweet Cecilia too ! 

 He might as well throw physic to the curs. 

 As give her steel in such an ill as hers. 

 A better course he took (for he was kind). 

 And gave his powerful tonics to the mind ; 

 'Twas quite enough — regardless of his fee. 

 To send his drooping patient to the sea. 

 And there the household tarried, till 'twas plain 

 The dying lady rallied up again ; 



" Was grown good-natured now ;" — her waiting-maid. 

 And Tom the footman, to each other said. 

 They liked the borders of the Brighton-sea, 

 And new to them its stirring revelry. 

 Cecilia loved her own calm seaward room 

 For meditation and the twilight's gloom ; 

 An open lattice (think of that !) in June, 

 With sparkling waters, and a rising rnoon. 

 Sir Charles was somewhere — but we cannot toll. 

 Not being conjurors, where his footsteps fell. 

 Her Ladyship most likely wished a crisis — 

 So left the parties to their own devices. 



It did so happen — for Cecilia came 

 ' ' One evening, smiling, to the noble dame, 



.; And asked the favour of a little slip 



Of good court-plaster — she had hurt her lip. 

 ' ", Her Ladyship, without a comment, took ■ ' 



The boon requested from her pocket-book ; 

 Adding, in days of yore she liked the grace 

 A sable spot would give her plainer face. 

 Cecilia dimpled, flitted off again 

 To breathe the fresher breezes of the main. 

 An hour elapsed — it might be something more — 

 Sir Charles strode forward from his study-door ; 

 His countenance adorned with a patch. 

 Which might, in shape and size, Cecilia's match. 

 The married woman viewed his features stern. 

 As though she'd something from their form to learn ; 

 And asked — but not without a bitter smile — 

 What he'd been doing with his lips the while ? 

 Just at this moment sweet Cecilia entered. 

 Robbed of that gem which in her face was centered. 

 An awful pause succeeded, and the guest 

 Looked round the room, astonished and distressed. 

 Sir Charles, unconscious how he was arrayed. 

 And little dreaming of the transfer made, 

 " Lashed up the lion" — marched, with angry cough. 

 Towards the candles — when the patch fell off! 



