THE CAT; 



Le Chat Noir 



Half loving-kindliness, and half disdain, 



Thou comest to my call, serenely suave, 



With humming speech and gracious gesture grave, 



In salutation courtly and urbane. 



Yet must I humble me thy grace to gain, 



For wiles may win thee, but no arts enslave, 



And nowhere gladly thou abidest, save 



Where naught disturbs the concord of thy reign. 



Sphinx of my quiet hearth ! who deignst to dwell 

 Friend of my toil, companion of mine ease, 

 Thine is the lore of Ra and Rameses; 

 That men forget dost thou remember well, 

 Beholden still in blinking reveries, 

 With sombre, sea-green gaze inscrutable. 



Graham Tomson. 



61 



