Once a Week (magazine)/Series 1/Volume 1/The shadow kiss

by Rev. John Stedman

THE SHADOW KISS.

Two deep bay windows lit the room
In which we watch’d the evening gloom;
In this myself and Lucy sat,
Pater and maiden aunts in that;
The gaslight on the flags below
And on our ceiling cast a glow.

While pater and his coterie
Talk’d matters parliamentary;
Or rul’d, with solemn shake of head,
How prudently the young should wed,
In my committee I said, “This,
My dearest, is the time to kiss!”

Lured by the shadowy hour and nook,
The proffer’d pledge she coyly took;
When, lo! by our unlucky fate,
In silhouette, our tête-a-tête,
Noses and pouted lips were all
Obliquely shadow’d on the wall!

So, when the footman brings in tea,
Sombre are they, and scarlet we:
The lamp has prematurely shown
A truth we had not dared to own:
Small thanks to light untimely cast,—
And yet this kiss was not our last!

J. S.