And keep it,—it shall pay you for the loss,—
You all put up your finger—‘See the thief!
‘Observe that precious thing she has come to filch!
‘How bad those girls are!’ Oh, my flower, my pet,
I dare forget I have you in my arms,
And fly off to be angry with the world,
And fright you, hurt you with my tempers, till
You double up your lip? Ah, that indeed
Is bad: a naughty mother!’
‘You mistake,’
I interrupted. ‘If I loved you not,
I should not, Marian, certainly be here.’
‘Alas,’ she said, ‘you are so very good;
And yet I wish, indeed, you had never come
To make me sob until I vex the child.
It is not wholesome for these pleasure-plats
To be so early watered by our brine.
And then, who knows? he may not like me now
As well, perhaps, as ere he saw me fret,—
One’s ugly fretting! he has eyes the same
As angels, but he cannot see as deep,
And so I’ve kept for ever in his sight
A sort of smile to please him, as you place
A green thing from the garden in a cup,
To make believe it grows there. Look, my sweet,
My cowslip-ball! we’ve done with that cross face,
And here’s the face come back you used to like.
And, ah! he laughs! he likes me. Ah, Miss Leigh,
You’re great and pure; but were you purer still,—
