I met a lady in the wood.
   No mortal maid, I knew, was she;
 She was no thing of flesh and blood,
   No child of human ancestry.

 Her beauty held my eyes in thrall.
   I spoke to her sweet words, soft-toned.
 She answered me no word at all,
   But only looked at me and moaned.

 I spoke to her about Exchange,
   Of Sterling and its recent rise.
 The subject was beyond her range;
   She stared at me with haunting eyes.

 I touched upon the price of Rye
   And its effect upon the Pound.
 She walked beside me silently,
   Like one that treads on charméd ground.

 She witched me with her elfin grace.
   I spoke of Wages and the Dole
 And briefly sketched for her the case
   For International Control.

 She gazed upon me as I talked;
   Some elfin thing she seemed to be.
 I knew her, by the way she walked,
   A creature of the Faëry.

 Through green and leafy glades we went,
   Knee-deep among the dewy ferns;
 I touched upon the Law of Rent
   And of Diminishing Returns.

 And, as we wandered through the wood
   Mid oaks and elm-tree boles rotund,
 Explained to her as best I could
   The workings of a Sinking Fund.

 I said that Rubber was depressed
   By recent rumours from Malay.
 She only moaned and beat her breast
   And cried aloud, 'Alack-a-day!'

 I said my brokers had foreseen
   A rise in Oil, and asked her view
 As to the trend of Margarine,
   She only answered 'Willaloo!'

 I took her to a green-lit glade
   Where tall trees twined their branches high
 And a moss-muted streamlet made
   Unmeditating melody;

 And there I paused awhile; and there
   I offered her my heart and hand,
 And bade her take me in her care
   To dwell with her in Fairyland.

 I said I was a Whale-oil King,
   With gold and goods and gear in plenty.
 She said she was a Mrs. Byng
   And had a family of twenty.

 She turned and left me where I stood.
   While round her elfin pipes were fluting
 She walked away into the wood,
   And I walked home to Lower Tooting.