Page:The Collected Poems of Dora Sigerson Shorter.djvu/47

“And he should walk, while she would ride,
Through all the town away;
And greater than Earl Roderick
She would become that day.”

Now scornful laughed Earl Roderick:
“I vow this could not be;
There is no lady in the land
Could make a slave of me.

“There has no woman yet been born
Who could more great become:
So get you hence, you evil hag,
Your tale grows wearisome.”

And home went Black Earl Roderick,
Right angry was he now;
He sat before the dying fire,
A frown was on his brow.

He looked across the empty room,
And once he saw again
His lady on the threshold stand,
With face of grievous pain.

“Come here, come here, my sad-faced bride;
Why do you come and go?
There is a question I must ask,
An answer I must know.”

Oh, stern was Black Earl Roderick,
He called her by her name;
But from the threshold of the room
She neither spoke nor came.

Now rose up Black Earl Roderick,
And strode the chamber through,
And said, “If you come not to me,
I fain must come to you.”