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The next day as the three were at table Ansel of what he had composed for his ht safely say what he liked

"Even did she know her," returned Lothario, "I would hide nothing, for

when a lover praises his lady's beauty, and charges her with cruelty, he

casts no imputation upon her fair name; at any rate, all I can say is

that yesterday I oes thus:

SONNET

At ht, in the silence, when the eyes

Of happier mortals balmy slumbers close,

The weary tale of my unnumbered woes

To Chloris and to Heaven is wont to rise

And when the light of day returning dyes

The portals of the east with tints of rose,

With undiminished force hs

And when the sun ascends his star-girt throne,

And on the earth pours down hisand oes up ony it seems

To me that neither Heaven nor Chloris hears"

The sonnet pleased Camilla, and still more Anselmo, for he praised it and

said the lady was excessively cruel who made no return for sincerity so

manifest On which Camilla said, "Then all that love-smitten poets say is

true?"

"As poets they do not tell the truth," replied Lothario; "but as lovers

they are not more defective in expression than they are truthful"