When I was a young man, and very well thought of,
I couldn't ask aught that the ladies denied.
I nibbled their hearts like a handful of raisins
And I never spoke love, but I knew that I lied.
But I said to myself, "Ah, they none of them know
The secret I shelter and savor and save:
I wait for the one who will see through my seeming,
And I'll know when I love by the way I behave."
The years drifted over like clouds in the heavens,
The ladies went by me like snow on the wind.
I charmed and I cheated, deceived and dissembled,
And I sinned, and I sinned, and I sinned, and I sinned.
But I said to myself, "Ah, they none of them see
There's a part of me pure as the whisk of a wave,
My lady is late, but she'll find I've been faithful,
And I'll know when I love by the way I behave."
At last came a lady both knowing and tender,
Saying, "You're not at all what they take you to be."
I betrayed her before she had quite finished speaking,
And she swallowed cold poison and jumped in the sea.
And I say to myself, when there's time for a word,
As I gracefully grow more debauched and depraved,
"Ah, love may be strong, but a habit is stronger,
And I knew when I loved by the way I behaved."