| |
| THEY sat in her drawing-room amid easeful silence in tolerant enmity. | |
| The men were three, and her husband was the third. | |
| This in its way amplified his urbanity. | |
| His suavities were of ivory. | |
| He was more irreproachable than her virginal teacups. | 5 |
| |
| She gave her lips to the moment, and her fingers nestled in a bowl of apricots. | |
| The tea was amber, and the pungent lemon and the blanched sugar | |
| Seized and caressed the eyes as each man took a proffered cup. | |
| |
| It loosed the tongues, and the four were free. | |
| As four portraits on a wall come to life they stirred the silence with a babbling that gleamed. | 10 |
| The drawing-room was draped in a wistaria mist, | |
| And the flutter of the phrases patted the cheek with an alien charm. | |
| In but a short while she had become dominant, | |
| And then she wrapped herself in the soothing nerves of excitement. | |
| The three were lost in the pursuit of fragrance. | 15 |
| Their chairs were their kingdoms, and there were no other empires. | |
| Archly then her voice dared: | |
| “Will you have another cup, my beloved?” | |
| |
| It was three cups that rang to her, and her husband’s, it chanced, was the third. | |
| She smiled over her adroit and ample confession, and it was enough. | 20 |
| She had done with the hour, | |
| And she let the uneasy hush turn to a hodden-grey. | |
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