Respectability

Dear, had the world in its caprice     Deigned to proclaim I know you both,     Have recognized your plighted troth,     Am sponsor for you: live in peace!     How many precious months and years     Of youth had passed, that speed so fast,     Before we found it out at last,     The world, and what it fears?     How much of priceless life were spent     With men that every virtue decks,     And women models of their sex,     Societys true ornament,     Ere we dared wander, nights like this,     Thro wind and rain, and watch the Seine,     And feel the Boulevart break again     To warmth and light and bliss?     I know! the world proscribes not love;     Allows my finger to caress     Your lips contour and downiness,     Provided it supply a glove.     The worlds good word! the Institute!     Guizot receives Montalembert!     Eh? Down the court three lampions flare:     Put forward your best foot!