Sylvie and Bruno — Peter and Paul (Part 4 of 5)
- Yet in your character I've found
- An inconsistency or two.
- You seem to have long years to spare
- When there's a promise to fulfil:
- And yet how punctual you were
- In calling with that little bill!'
- 'One can't be too deliberate,'
- Said Paul, 'in parting with one's pelf.
- With bills, as you correctly state,
- I'm punctuality itself:
- A man may surely claim his dues:
- But, when there's money to be lent,
- A man must be allowed to choose
- Such times as are convenient!'
- It chanced one day, as Peter sat
- Gnawing a crust--his usual meal--
- Paul bustled in to have a chat,
- And grasped his hand with friendly zeal.
- 'I knew,' said he, 'your frugal ways:
- So, that I might not wound your pride
- By bringing strangers in to gaze,
- I've left my legal friend outside!
- 'You well remember, I am sure,
- When first your wealth began to go,
- And people sneered at one so poor,
- I never used my Peter so!
- And when you'd lost your little all,
- And found yourself a thing despised,
- I need not ask you to recall
- How tenderly I sympathised!
- 'Then the advice I've poured on you,
- So full of wisdom and of wit:
- All given gratis, though 'tis true
- I might have fairly charged for it!
- But I refrain from mentioning
- Full many a deed I might relate
- For boasting is a kind of thing
- That I particularly hate.
- 'How vast the total sum appears
- Of all the kindnesses I've done,
- From Childhood's half-forgotten years
- Down to that Loan of April One!
- That Fifty Pounds! You little guessed
- How deep it drained my slender store:
- But there's a heart within this breast,
- And I WILL LEND YOU FIFTY MORE!'
- 'Not so,' was Peter's mild reply,
- His cheeks all wet with grateful tears ;
- No man recalls, so well as I,
- Your services in bygone years:
- And this new offer, I admit,
- Is very very kindly meant--