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Page 21 Mary.
Dear, tell me all.
It comforts you to tell me. Do not fear
I cannot share it with you. I have now
So large a happiness that it is wide
To hold most sorrows - more than sorrow can.
I know that, I, who once had sorrow too,
And scorn you, darling? Do you think me then
So shallow-righteous that. I can scorn grief
Because perhaps there went one drop of wrong
To tip its sting? Scorn you too for your love?
I know you have all pride a woman should
Of modesty. You talk to me because
It is, here in this twilight we were wont
To call "our time," like talking to yourself:
But I know well you have been hushed to him -
You'd not woo, you, if you could win him so.
Lady Boycott.
Yet let me tell you. While my husband lived
In seeming strength I had a creeping fear
Would haunt my conscience like bad memories there,
As if, if he should die, I should perceive
A sense of freedom, and go lighter stepped,
And not be sad at all as I must seem.
But while I nursed him dying that was changed.
I did not feign the tenderness I shewed,
Nor wear my care for ornament. I seemed
To love him since he suffered. And I felt
That to his best he loved me. So I wept
Because we were to part with such an awe,
And he was scared at dying, not because
It seemed the wife's right way. And then, he dead,
The irretrievable strange going hence,
And something too the still dread show of death,
Struck me with such a sadness as made tears
A natural comfort to me, made the calm
Of one who has been grieving hush my life.
And while I still was sad a good kind soul -
If she had but grown dumb as well as deaf!
Came with her cordial chatter. "So, my dear,
The widow's weeds put by. Well, quite time too:
You've worn them past the fashion for wives now.
I'm glad too; for my nephew's coming soon.
Don't think I did not know that naughty work -
You were too bad. But he could never bear
A word against you. Ah! he's true to you,
Like lovers in old times. You never heard
I think of that bad fever that he had
And raved of you long after you were wed.
Next |
A Woman Sold
Bartimaeus
Judas
Pilate
The Walk To Emmaus
A Bride
A March Night
A Messenger
A Mother's Cry
A Wedding
Afterwards
Dead Amy
Deserted
Dreaming
Glad Waves
Going
How The Brook Sings
If
In The Storm
In The Sunshine
Looking Downstairs
Mary Lost
Never Again
Night Whispers
On The Lake
On The Shore
Our Lily
Passing Away
Perjured
Safe
Shadow
Sunlight
The Blush Rose
The Gift
The Heiress' Wooer
The Hidden Wound
The Lake
The Land Of Happy Dreams
The Old Year Out
The Red Star On The Hill
The River
The Setting Star
The Shadow Of A Cloud
To And Fro
To One Of Many
Too faithful
Two Maidens |
