must stir it and stump it,
And blow your own trumpet,
Or, trust me, you haven't a chance!

Now take, for example, my case:
I've a bright intellectual brain--
In all London city
There's no one so witty--
I've thought so again and again.
I've a highly intelligent face--
My features cannot be denied--
But, whatever I try, sir,
I fail in--and why, sir?
I'm modesty personified!

If you wish in the world to advance, etc.

As a poet, I'm tender and quaint--
I've passion and fervour and grace--
From Ovid and Horace
To Swinburne and Morris,
They all of them take a back place.
Then I sing and I play and I paint:
Though none are accomplished as I,
To say so were treason:
You ask me the reason?
I'm diffident, modest, and shy!

If you wish in the world to advance, etc.

(Exit Robin.)

RICH. (looking after him). Ah, it's a thousand pities he's
such a poor opinion of himself, for a finer fellow don't walk!
Well, I'll do my best for him. "Plead for him as though it was
for your own father"--that's what my heart's a-remarkin' to me
just now. But here she comes! Steady! Steady it is! (Enter
Rose--he is much struck by her.) By the Port Admiral, but she's
a tight little craft! Come, come, she's not for you, Dick, and
yet--she's fit to marry Lord Nelson! By the Flag of Old England,
I can't look at her unmoved.
ROSE. Sir, you are agitated--
RICH. Aye, aye, my lass, well said! I am agitated, true
enough!--took flat aback, my girl; but 'tis naught--'twill pass.
(Aside.) This here heart of mine's a-dictatin' to me like
anythink. Question is, Have I a right to disregard its
promptings?
ROSE. Can I do aught to relieve thine anguish, for it
seemeth to me that thou art in sore trouble? This
apple--(offering a damaged apple).
RICH. (looking at it and returning it). No, my lass,
'tain't that: I'm--I'm took flat aback--I never see anything like
you in all my born