The Charity Ball.[118]

WHAT matter the pangs of a husband and father, If his sorrows in exile be great or be small, So the Pharisee's glories around her she gather, And the saint patronises her "Charity Ball!"

What matters--a heart which, though faulty, was feeling, Be driven to excesses which once could appal-- That the Sinner should suffer is only fair dealing, As the Saint keeps her charity back for "the Ball!"

December 10, 1820. [First published, Letters and Journals, 1830, ii. 540.]