y, to be enjoyed for its own sake"--but are
monstrously (more than any other instance I can recall) unsuited to the
mind from which they are supposed to come.

"New-blown and ruddy as St. Agnes' nipple,
Plump as the flesh-bunch on some Turk-bird's poll!"

One such example is enough. We have once more been deprived of Pippa,
and got nothing really worth the possession in exchange.

But Pippa is quickly retrieved, with her gleeful claim that _she_ is the
queen of this glowing blossom, for is it not she who has guarded it from
harm? So it may laugh through her window at the tantalised bee (are
there travelling bees in Italy on New-Year's Day? But this is Midsummer
Day!), may tease him as much as it likes, but must

". . . in midst of thy glee,
Love thy Queen, worship me!"

There will be warrant for the worship--

". . . For am I not, this day,
Whate'er I please? What shall I please to-day?

* * * * *

I may fancy all day--and it shall be so--
That I taste of the pleasures, am called by the names,
Of the Happiest Four in our Asolo!"

So, as she winds up her hair (we may fancy), Pippa plays the not yet
relinquished baby-game of Let's-pretend; but is grown-up in this--that
she begins and ends with love, which children give and take
unconsciously.

"Some one shall love me, as the world calls love:
I am no less than Ottima, take warning!
The gardens and the great stone house above,
And other house for shrubs, all glass in front,
Are mine; where Sebald steals, as he is wont,
To court me, while old Luca yet reposes . . ."

But this earliest pretending breaks down quickly. What, after all, is
the sum of those doings in the shrub-house? What would Pippa gain, were
she in truth great haughty Ottima? She would but "give abundant cause
for prate." Ottima, bold, confident, and not fully aware, can face that
out, but Pippa knows, more closely than the woman rich and proud can
know,

"How we talk in the little town below."

So the first dream is over.

"Love, love, love--there's better love, I know!"

--and the next pretending shall "defy the scoffer"; it shall be the love
of Jules and Phene--

"Why should I not be the bride as soon
As Ottima?"

Moreover, last night she had seen the stranger-girl arrive--"if you
call it seeing her," for it had been the m