Mused, and was mute. On a sudden a low breath In gloss and hue the chestnut, when the shell Divides threefold to show the fruit within : Then, wondering, ask'd her 'Are you from the farm?' 'Yes' answer'd she. 'Pray stay a little pardon me; What do they call you?' 'Katie.' strange. "That were What surname?' 'Willows.' 'No!' 'That is my name.' 'Indeed!' and here he look'd so self-perplext, That Katie laugh'd, and laughing blush'd, till he Laugh'd also, but as one before he wakes, Who feels a glimmering strangeness in his dream. Then looking at her; 'Too happy, fresh and fair, Too fresh and fair in our sad world's best bloom, To be the ghost of one who bore your name About these meadows, twenty years ago.' 'Have you not heard?' said Katie, 'we came back. We bought the farm we tenanted before. Am I so like her? so they said on board. Sir, if you knew her in her English days, My mother, as it seems you did, the days But she-you will be welcome-O, come in!' K THE LETTERS. 1. STILL on the tower stood the vane, A black yew gloom'd the stagnant air, I peer'd athwart the chancel pane And saw the altar cold and bare. A clog of lead was round my feet, 'Cold altar, Heaven and earth shall meet Before you hear my marriage vow.' 2. I turn'd and humm'd a bitter song That mock'd the wholesome human heart, And then we met in wrath and wrong, We met, but only meant to part. Full cold my greeting was and dry; She faintly smiled, she hardly moved; I saw with half-unconscious eye She wore the colours I approved. 3. She took the little ivory chest, With half a sigh she turn'd the key, Then raised her head with lips comprest, And gave the trinkets and the rings, My gifts, when gifts of mine could please; As looks a father on the things Of his dead son, I look'd on these. |