THE RIVAL

I determined to find out whose it was -

The portrait he looked at so, and sighed;

Bitterly have I rued my meanness

And wept for it since he died!

I searched his desk when he was away,

And there was the likeness — yes, my own!

Taken when I was the season's fairest,

And time-lines all unknown.

I smiled at my image, and put it back,

And he went on cherishing it, until

I was chafed that he loved not the me then living,

But that past woman still.

Well, such was my jealousy at last,

I destroyed that face of the former me;

Could you ever have dreamed the heart of woman

Would work so foolishly!