922263Company — illustrations by Howard PyleWilliam Dean Howells
COMPANY
THOUGHT, "How terrible, if I were seen
Just as in will and deed I had always been!
And if this were the fate that I must face
At the last day, and all else were God's grace,
How must I shrink and cower before them there,
Stripped naked to the soul and beggared bare
Of every rag of seeming!" Then, "Why, no,"
I thought, "Why should I, if the rest are so?"
