Don Juan 05-121
Canto the Fifth
 
     CXXI
 
But tears must stop like all things else; and soon
     Juan, who for an instant had been moved
To such a sorrow by the intrusive tone
     Of one who dared to ask if "he had loved,"
Call'd back the stoic to his eyes, which shone
     Bright with the very weakness he reproved;
And although sensitive to beauty, he
Felt most indignant still at not being free.
 
 
Don Juan 05-122
Canto the Fifth
 
     CXXII
 
Gulbeyaz, for the first time in her days,
     Was much embarrass'd, never having met
In all her life with aught save prayers and praise;
     And as she also risk'd her life to get
Him whom she meant to tutor in love's ways
     Into a comfortable tete-a-tete,
To lose the hour would make her quite a martyr,
And they had wasted now almost a quarter.
 
 
Don Juan 05-123
Canto the Fifth
 
     CXXIII
 
I also would suggest the fitting time
     To gentlemen in any such like case,
That is to say in a meridian clime --
     With us there is more law given to the chase,
But here a small delay forms a great crime:
     So recollect that the extremest grace
Is just two minutes for your declaration --
A moment more would hurt your reputation.
 
 
Don Juan 05-124
Canto the Fifth
 
     CXXIV
 
Juan's was good; and might have been still better,
     But he had got Haidee into his head:
However strange, he could not yet forget her,
     Which made him seem exceedingly ill-bred.
Gulbeyaz, who look'd on him as her debtor
     For having had him to her palace led,
Began to blush up to the eyes, and then
Grow deadly pale, and then blush back again.
 
 
Don Juan 05-125
Canto the Fifth
 
     CXXV
 
At length, in an imperial way, she laid
     Her hand on his, and bending on him eyes
Which needed not an empire to persuade,
     Look'd into his for love, where none replies:
Her brow grew black, but she would not upbraid,
     That being the last thing a proud woman tries;
She rose, and pausing one chaste moment, threw
Herself upon his breast, and there she grew.
 
George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
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