III.

I, strengthened, left him. Next in a close place,

Mid houses crowded, dingy, barred, and high,

Where men live not except to sell and buy,

To me, leaving a doorway, came a grace.

( Surely from heaven she came, though all that race

Walketh on human feet beneath the sky. )

I, going on, beheld not who was nigh,

When a sweet girl looked up into my face

With earnest eyes, most maidenly sedate —

Looked up to me, as I to him did look:

‘ Twas much to me whom sometimes men mistook.

She asked me where we dwelt, that she might wait

Upon us there. I told her, and elate,

Went on my way to seek another nook.