From mixing with the world’s prosperities;
That so, in gravity and holy calm,
We too may live on toward the truer life.’
She looked me in the face and answered not,
Nor signed she was unworthy, nor gave thanks,
But took the sleeping child and held it out
To meet my kiss, as if requiting me
And trusting me at once. And thus, at once,
I carried him and her to where I lived;
She’s there now, in the little room, asleep,
I hear the soft child-breathing through the door;
And all three of us, at to-morrow’s break,
Pass onward, homeward, to our Italy.
Oh, Romney Leigh, I have your debts to pay,
And I’ll be just and pay them.
But yourself!
To pay your debts is scarcely difficult;
To buy your life is nearly impossible,
Being sold away to Lamia. My head aches;
I cannot see my road along this dark;
Nor can I creep and grope, as fits the dark,
For these foot-catching robes of womanhood:
A man might walk a little . . but I!—He loves
The Lamia-woman,—and I, write to him
What stops his marriage, and destroys his peace,—
Or what, perhaps, shall simply trouble him,
Until she only need to touch his sleeve
With just a finger’s tremulous white flame,
Saying, ’Ah,—Aurora Leigh! a pretty tale,
