On came the carriage: Arnold drops the reins;
Descends, and instantly his love entwines—
Dumb with emotion at his kind embrace.
Whilst gentle drops stole down Jane’s blushing face,
Lord Arnold’s own bright eyes, keen to behold,
’Came dimm’d with joy: yes! could he but have told
One half the feelings wrought upon his heart,
Not even then a tithe could he impart:
He saw, at once, her tutors, when they wrote,
Had partially concealed how they were smote;—
Not, as he naturally might have inferr’d—
That they’d contriv’d to please him, and conferr’d
One with another: no, this wasn’t the case,
For he beheld her now endowed with grace;
Her comeliness and rare symmetral form
Surpass’d his hope, and ’flam’d his bosom warm.
Recovering from this reverie of bliss,
Jane spoke in silvery tones; her tale was this—
“I’ve learn’d to love thee, in thy absence, dear;
Pray pardon me, if now I love thee here;”
So placed her hand immediately in his,
And seal’d his lips with her first earnest kiss.
Arnold, in raptures with this stroke of love,
Glimpsed her two joys; and envied not high Jove!