As men upon their death-beds thank last friends
Who lay the pillow straight: it is not much,
And yet ’tis all of which they are capable,
This lying smoothly in a bed to die.
And so, ’twas fixed;—and so, from day to day,
The woman named, came in to visit me.’
Just then the girl stopped speaking,—sate erect,
And stared at me as if I had been a ghost,
(Perhaps I looked as white as any ghost),
With large-eyed horror. ‘Does God make,’ she said,
‘All sorts of creatures really, do you think?
Or is it that the Devil slavers them
So excellently, that we come to doubt
Who’s stronger, He who makes, or he who mars?
I never liked the woman’s face or voice,
Or ways: it made me blush to look at her;
It made me tremble if she touched my hand;
And when she spoke a fondling word I shrank,
As if one hated me, who had power to hurt;
And, every time she came, my veins ran cold,
As somebody were walking on my grave.
At last I spoke to Lady Waldemar:
‘Could such an one be good to trust?’ I asked.
Whereat the lady stroked my cheek and laughed
Her silver-laugh (one must be born to laugh,
To put such music in it) ‘Foolish girl,
‘Your scattered wits are gathering wool beyond
‘The sheep-walk reaches!—leave the thing to me.’
And therefore, half in trust, and half in scorn
