Purification Five, Æther

The Lady Albertine assumes a pose
Before the coffee shop for all to see;
She gives a stately dance, and on she goes –
It’s two o’clock; the next show will be three.
She carries worldly goods within her bags –
Five rubies and an emerald or two;
For her all’s lace and silk (she owns no rags),
And kerchiefs glow the deepest lapis blue.
But then she hears a word and turns to it,
And finds that no one’s there; her enemy
Has fled again - but will in time submit
And deeply bow to her high dignity.
The Lady Albertine is madly rich,
But now and then she hears about that witch.