,

    I should like above all things to go with you there,

    But really and truly—I've nothing to wear."

    "Nothing to wear! Go just as you are;

    Wear the dress you have on, and you'll be by far,

    I engage, the most bright and particular star

    On the Stuckup horizon—" I stopped, for her eye,

    Notwithstanding this delicate onset of flattery,

    Opened on me at once a most terrible battery

    Of scorn and amazement. She made no reply,

    But gave a slight turn to the end of her nose

    (That pure Grecian feature), as much as to say,

    "How absurd that any sane man should suppose

    That a lady would go to a ball in the clothes,

    No matter how fine, that she wears every day!"

    So I ventured again: "Wear your crimson brocade;"

    (Second turn up of nose)—"That's too dark by a shade."

    "Your blue silk"—"That's too heavy." "Your pink"—"That's too light."

    "Wear tulle over satin"—"I can't endure white."

    "Your rose-colored, then, the best of the batch"—

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