Charles Graham Halpine

Feminine Arithmetic

      LAURA

On me he shall ne’er put a ring,
  So, mamma, ’tis in vain to take trouble –
For I was but eighteen in spring,
  While his age exactly is double.

      MAMMA

He’s but in his thirty-sixth year,
  Tall, handsome, good-natured and witty,
And should you refuse him, my dear,
  May you die an old maid without pity!

      LAURA

His figure, I grant you, will pass,
  And at present he’s young enough plenty;
But when I am sixty, alas!
  Will not he be a hundred and twenty?