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FLOWERS BY THE POETS. 37 
MIGNONETTE. 
■ • Your qualities surpass your charms.” 
I passed before her garden gate : 
She stood among her roses, 
And stooped a little from the state 
In which her pride reposes, 
To make her flowers a graceful plea 
For luring and delaying me. 
“ When summer blossoms fade so soon," 
She said with winning sweetness, 
“ Who does not wear the badge of June 
Lacks something of completeness. 
My garden welcomes you to-day, 
Come in and gather, while you may.” 
I entered in : she led me through 
A maze of leafy arches, 
Where velvet-purple Pansies grew 
Beneath the sighing larches,— 
A shadowy, still, and cool retreat 
That gave excuse for ling’ring feet. 
She paused, pulled down a trailing vine. 
And twisted round her finger 
Its starry sprays of Jessamine, 
As one who seeks to linger. 
But I smiled lightly in her face, 
And passed on to the open space. 
