Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.
IV. Picking and StealingThomas James Judkin
N
So watched and guarded near the summer-house;
I caught her pilfering from the lower boughs,—
“Dear Heaven! what purple lips! they ’ll surely be
To in-door folk no doubtful history.”
Now this to ’scape she stood with knitted brows
In pretty strife betwixt the ifs and hows,—
No spring was near,—and turning full on me,
She said, “Sweet cousin, thy advice I pray.”
“It is,” quoth I (one arm her waist enfolding,
And with the other hand her small wrists holding),
“It is, to kiss those tell-tale stains away.”
But ah! as kisses oft will do, this made
The matter worse, and both of us betrayed.