cistern in the waste! Oh bread we ate in secret! Oh cup we spilled in haste!

“‘The youth new-taught of longing, The widow curbed and wan — The good wife proud at season, And the maid aware of man; All souls, unslaked, consuming, Defrauded in delays, Desire not more than quittance Than I those forfeit days!’

“Oh, get him, get him, you three oldsters, as I’ve got him! Get what he saws next:

“‘I dreamed to wait my pleasure, Unchanged my spring would bide: Wherefore, to wait my pleasure, I put my spring aside, Till, first in face of Fortune, And last in mazed disdain, I made Diego Valdez High Admiral of Spain!’

“Listen to me, guardians!” Dick cried on, his face a flame of passion.