X
When lounging idle mid forensic whirl,
Friend Varus took me off to see his girl.
The naughty wench, I very soon was shewn,
Had got some wit and beauty of her own.
Arriving, we began a busy chat
On politics, and weather, this and that–
Then on my province’s internal state,
And "Had I found the profit adequate"
I answered truthfully, "There’s nothing there
For common soldier or for officer
Wherewith to purchase grease for home-bound hair."
"You found at least"–said she–"one always can:
Some aboriginals for your sedan?"
Said I in answer, posing for her eyes
In prosperous and fashionable guise,
"Oh, really, I was not so penniless
That any mere provincial distress
Should render me incompetent to get
Eight smartish bearers for the voiturette."
(In truth there was no slave in all the earth
Whom I could then have summoned to my hearth
To shoulder the debilitated leg
Of my old pallet). "Then, dear friend, I beg"–
Cries she most aptly for so bad a minx–
I want to pay a visit to the Sphinx–
You’ll lend them me just to the temple door,
My sweet Catullus?"
6
