MAN'S DEVOTION

A lover said, “O Maiden, love me well,

For I must go away:

And should ANOTHER ever come to tell

Of love — What WILL you say?”

And she let fall a royal robe of hair

That folded on his arm

And made a golden pillow for her there;

Her face — as bright a charm

As ever setting held in kingly crown —

Made answer with a look,

And reading it, the lover bended down,

And, trusting, “kissed the book.”

He took a fond farewell and went away.

And slow the time went by —

So weary — dreary was it, day by day

To love, and wait, and sigh.

She kissed his pictured face sometimes, and said:

“O Lips, so cold and dumb,

I would that you would tell me, if not dead,

Why, why do you not come?”

The picture, smiling, stared her in the face

Unmoved — e'en with the touch

Of tear-drops — HERS — bejeweling the case —

‘ Twas plain — she loved him much.

And, thus she grew to think of him as gay

And joyous all the while,

And SHE was sorrowing — “Ah, welladay!”

But pictures ALWAYS smile!

And years — dull years — in dull monotony

As ever went and came,

Still weaving changes on unceasingly,

And changing, changed her name.

Was she untrue?— She oftentimes was glad

And happy as a wife;

But ONE remembrance oftentimes made sad

Her matrimonial life.—

Though its few years were hardly noted, when

Again her path was strown

With thorns — the roses swept away again,

And she again alone!

And then — alas! ah THEN!— her lover came:

“I come to claim you now —

My Darling, for I know you are the same,

And I have kept my vow

Through these long, long, long years, and now no more

Shall we asundered be!”

She staggered back and, sinking to the floor,

Cried in her agony:

“I have been false!” she moaned, “I am not true —

I am not worthy now,

Nor ever can I be a wife to YOU —

For I have broke my vow!”

And as she kneeled there, sobbing at his feet,

He calmly spoke — no sign

Betrayed his inward agony — “I count you meet

To be a wife of mine!”

And raised her up forgiven, though untrue;

As fond he gazed on her,

She sighed,— “SO HAPPY!” And she never knew

HE was a WIDOWER.