Argosy (UK), January 1955 — page 102: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

100 Couleur de Rose ° How lovely, lovely she had looked, as she came towards him >» through the falling snow under her red umbrella, with the pale rosy light over her half-veiled face . . . How lovely she had looked! He would always remember that. Everything had gone just right that morning. It all went to show how much luck there was in such things, how much a mere series of tiny accidents can mould one’s destiny. A rainy day, after a long unbroken chain of days of sunshine, and everything has a new quality; a new background is provided, and one’s beloved has a new beauty... Might not love fade away entirely, but for just such surprises provided by destiny? Best of all had been the miracle of the snow, and her astonishing newness under the red umbrella. | Good lord, how lovely she had looked: the red umbrella under the softly falling windless snow, her soundless approach through the deep virginal whiteness of it on the sidewalk, and the rosy light on her enchanting face, her face which, he had felt, must be cool to the touch! Ecstasy. The whole thing had deepened at a breath, the wonder had become more wonderful, the exquisite silence about them had become infinitely suggestive. ConrRAD AIKEN, A Man Alone at Lunch Handmaiden Thou snowy farm with thy five tenements! Tell thy white mistress here was one That call’d to pay his daily rents: But she a-gathering flow’rs and hearts is gone, And thou left void to rude possession. But grieve not, pretty ermine cabinet, Thy alabaster lady will come home; If not, what tenant can there fit The slender turnings of thy narrow room, But must ejected be by his own doom? Then give me leave to leave my rent with thee; Five kisses, one unto a place: For though the lute’s too high for me, Yet servants, knowing minikin nor bass, Are still allow’d to fiddle with the case. RICHARD LOVELACE, 1618-58, Elinda’s Glove comicloooks.comn)