By Lord T-n.
So bluff Sir Leolin gave the bride away: 
And when they married her, the little church 
Had seldom seen a costlier ritual. 
The coach and pair alone were two-pound-ten, 
And two-pound-ten apiece the wedding-cakes;? 
Three wedding-cakes. A Cupid poised a-top 
Of each hung shivering to the frosted loves 
Of two fond cushats on a field of ice, 
As who should say 'I see you!'?Such the joy 
When English-hearted Edwin swore his faith 
With Mariana of the Moated Grange.
For Edwin, plump head-waiter at The Cock, 
Grown sick of custom, spoilt of plenitude, 
Lacking the finer wit that saith, 
'I wait, They come; and if I make them wait, they go,' 
Fell in a jaundiced humour petulant-green, 
Watched the dull clerk slow-rounding to his cheese, 
Flicked a full dozen flies that flecked the pane? 
All crystal-cheated of the fuller air, 
Blurted a free 'Good-day t'ye,' left and right, 
And shaped his gathering choler to this head:?
'Custom! And yet what profit of it all? 
The old order changeth yielding place to new, 
To me small change, and this the Counter-change 
Of custom beating on the self-same bar? 
Change out of chop. Ah me! the talk, the tip, 
The would-be-evening should-be-mourning suit, 
The forged solicitude for petty wants 
More petty still than they,?all these I loathe, 
Learning they lie who feign that all things come 
To him that waiteth. I have waited long, 
And now I go, to mate me with a bride 
Who is aweary waiting, even as I!'
But when the amorous moon of honeycomb 
Was over, ere the matron-flower of Love? 
Step-sister of To-morrow's marmalade? 
Swooned scentless, Mariana found her lord 
Did something jar the nicer feminine sense 
With usage, being all too fine and large, 
Instinct of warmth and colour, with a trick 
Of blunting 'Mariana's' keener edge 
To 'Mary Ann'?the same but not the same: 
Whereat she girded, tore her crisped hair, 
Called him 'Sir Churl,' and ever calling 'Churl!' 
Drave him to Science, then to Alcohol, 
To forge a thousand theories of the rocks, 
Then somewhat else for thousands dewy cool, 
Wherewith he sought a more Pacific isle 
And there found love, a duskier love than hers.