What My Lover Said
talked nonsense as young folks have from time immemorial. I even showed him some of my rhymes; he pretended to fancy ‘What My Lover Said’ so much that he copied it as a keep-sake and carried it off. [The italics are Mrs. Jones’s.] I cannot even recall his name, but perhaps this may account for the mystery connected with the verses.
“I plead not guilty to the charge of plagiarism,” she concludes, “and if my innocence is never proved, I implore, at least, the benefit of a doubt, if only that and nothing more. The sage of Highland Cottage may twine my laurel leaf with his proud chaplet, and as my own bread-winner I hope to retire once more into peaceful obscurity.”
And as a final proof that she really wrote “What My Lover Said” she sent to Mr. Boyd a sequel, inspired by the same romance. This sequel is entitled “A Twilight Dream,” and the first stanza is as follows:
Hand clasped in hand mid the clover we walked,
In the gloaming long ago;
The moonbeams kissed the peach blooms pink,
Coquettishly peeping to and fro.
How the stars blinked in the calm azure sky,
How the moon smiled down with inquisitive eye,
While the sweet south wind came prying by,
And the still hours of the night drew nigh,
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