To the Countess Bandelli

To-morrow if the day is fine
I visit you before you dine.
Juliet a little shy may be,
But Blanche will sit upon my knee,
Just as another some years older
Sate once with arm about my shoulder.
This is all twaddle, folks will say.
But you are wiser far than they.
Head upon head they could not reach
The lines of this unspoken speech.
Forgive me, Gertrude, if I'm proud,
Your hand has rais'd me o'er the crowd.