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Eleanor.
Ah well! you do no ill that I can chide.
I, who have gladly let you give me praise
Far past my merit in the foolish time
When I believed I could grow like your praise
Must bear in patience now if you give blame
Perhaps a little harder than you know.
Lionel.
So humble, Eleanor! How you are changed -
What is it? Are you ill? You were so proud.
Eleanor.
Yes, that was long ago before I knew
I could be tempted even to do wrong.
You know my boast was that I never broke
The lightest merry promise. Long ago
I could be proud.
Lionel.
Be proud again, my love,
My Eleanor! I know you are yourself
When you speak so. Be proud again, too proud
Not to atone. Stay, shall I tell you, dear,
How I received the tidings that Miss Vaughan
Was pricked for Lady Boycott? Why, I laughed,
Laughed, Eleanor, as any schoolboy might
Who heard his awful doctor had been caught
Picking a small boy's pocket for his pence.
It was not long ago. Young Polwarth came
To town, dined with me at our club, and there
Tossed out his precious news quite innocent
Of where it touched. "Miss Vaughan!" I laughed, "The joke
Is too far-fetched. You do not know her well."
Till he, abashed, recanted, "Well, no doubt
The rumour is not true; but so it runs."
And later that same evening Pringle came,
And he - I think he knew he stung me - yes
He'd guessed why his sweet speeches forced a clash
Of discord in your ears, where other words
Were making your love music - he was loud
With the same story. "Aye," he said, "she's wise,
That coy Miss Eleanor, she knows her worth.
All very well to lure on you or me
With her odd ways, half peacock and half dove,
Strutting and cooing - but, for marriage, why
We come to business then. She's a shrewd girl."
And he would not recant: he'd swear 'twas true.
But I said, "You'd not play fool's trumpeter
To the idiot gossips who invent such trash:
No surely: You and I both know her well."
And, Eleanor, even now I say to you,
It is not true - I know it who know you.
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 |
