`` And he sends me pieces of poetry he cuts out of the papers , '' Cecily went on , `` with lots of the lines marked with a lead pencil . Yesterday he put one in his letter , and this is what he marked : '' ` If you will not relent to me Then must I learn to know Darkness alone till life be flown . Here -- I have the piece in my sewing-bag -- I 'll read it all to you . '' Those three graceless girls read the sentimental rhyme and giggled over it . Poor Cyrus ! His young affections were sadly misplaced . But after all , though Cecily never relented towards him , he did not condemn himself to darkness alone till life was flown . Quite early in life he wedded a stout , rosy , buxom lass , the very antithesis of his first love ; he prospered in his undertakings , raised a large and respectable family , and was eventually appointed a Justice of the Peace . Which was all very sensible of Cyrus . CHAPTER XV . THE RAPE OF THE LOCK June was crowded full of interest that year . We gathered in with its sheaf of fragrant days the choicest harvest of childhood . Things happened right along . Cecily declared she hated to go to sleep for fear she might miss something . There were so many dear delights along the golden road to give us pleasure -- the earth dappled with new blossom , the dance of shadows in the fields , the rustling , rain-wet ways of the woods , the faint fragrance in meadow lanes , liltings of birds and croon of bees in the old orchard , windy pipings on the hills , sunset behind the pines , limpid dews filling primrose cups , crescent moons through darklings boughs , soft nights alight with blinking stars . We enjoyed all these boons , unthinkingly and light-heartedly , as children do . And besides these , there was the absorbing little drama of human life which was being enacted all around us , and in which each of us played a satisfying part -- the gay preparations for Aunt Olivia 's mid-June wedding , the excitement of practising for the concert with which our school-teacher , Mr. Perkins , had elected to close the school year , and Cecily 's troubles with Cyrus Brisk , which furnished unholy mirth for the rest of us , though Cecily could not see the funny side of it at all . Matters went from bad to worse in the case of the irrepressible Cyrus . He continued to shower Cecily with notes , the spelling of which showed no improvement ; he worried the life out of her by constantly threatening to fight Willy Fraser -- although , as Felicity sarcastically pointed out , he never did it . `` But I 'm always afraid he will , '' said Cecily , `` and it would be such a DISGRACE to have two boys fighting over me in school . ''
`` You must have encouraged Cyrus a little XXXXX the beginning or he 'd never have been so persevering , '' said Felicity unjustly .
If OF along as besides in over though till with