So bluff Sir Leolin gave the bride away: And when they married her, the little church Had seldom seen a costlier ritual. The coach and pair alone were two-pound-ten,
And two-pound-ten apiece the wedding-cakes;— Three wedding-cakes. A Cupid poised a-top Of each hung shivering to the frosted loves Of two fond cushats on a field of ice,
As who should say‘ I see you!’ — Such the joy When English-hearted Edwin swore his faith With Mariana of the Moated Grange. For Edwin, plump head-waiter at The Cock,
Grown sick of custom, spoilt of plenitude, Lacking the finer wit that saith, ‘ I wait, They come; and if I make them wait, they go,’ Fell in a jaundiced humour petulant-green,
Watched the dull clerk slow-rounding to his cheese, Flicked a full dozen flies that flecked the pane — All crystal-cheated of the fuller air, Blurted a free‘ Good-day t'ye,’ left and right,
And shaped his gathering choler to this head:— ‘ Custom! And yet what profit of it all? The old order changeth yielding place to new, To me small change, and this the Counter-change
Of custom beating on the self-same bar — Change out of chop. Ah me! the talk, the tip, The would-be-evening should-be-mourning suit, The forged solicitude for petty wants
More petty still than they,— all these I loathe, Learning they lie who feign that all things come To him that waiteth. I have waited long, And now I go, to mate me with a bride
Who is aweary waiting, even as I!’ But when the amorous moon of honeycomb Was over, ere the matron-flower of Love — Step-sister of To-morrow's marmalade —
Swooned scentless, Mariana found her lord Did something jar the nicer feminine sense With usage, being all too fine and large, Instinct of warmth and colour, with a trick
Of blunting‘ Mariana's’ keener edge To‘ Mary Ann’ — the same but not the same: Whereat she girded, tore her crisped hair, Called him‘ Sir Churl,’ and ever calling‘ Churl!’
Drave him to Science, then to Alcohol, To forge a thousand theories of the rocks, Then somewhat else for thousands dewy cool, Wherewith he sought a more Pacific isle
And there found love, a duskier love than hers.
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