For after all, his high-life attributes, 



His trick of doing nothing with an air, 



His salon manners and society smile, 



Were but skin-deep, factitious, and you saw 



The bustling despot of the mountain flock, 



And pastoral dog-of-all-work, underlie 



The fashionable modern lady's pet, — 



Industrial impulses bereft of scope, 



Duty and discipline denied an aim, 



Ancestral energy and strenuousness 



In graceful trifling frittered all away. 



Witness the depth of his concern and zeal 



About minutest issues : shall we take 



This path or that ? — it matters not a straw — 



But just a moment unresolved we stand, 



And all his personality, from ears 



To tip of tail, is interrogative ; 



And when from pure indifference we decide, 



How he vociferates ! how he bounds ahead ! 



With what enthusiasm he ratifies, 



Applauds, acclaims our choice 'twixt right and left, 



As though some hoary problem over which 



The world had puckered immemorial brows, 



Were solved at last, and all life launched anew ! 



These and a thousand tricks and ways and traits 

 I noted as of Demos at their root, 

 And foreign to the staid, conservative, 

 Came-over-with-the-Conqueror type of mind. 



208 



