Sfc* KW^^> %^fc ^IflttBfiF 1 H°\< THE INN ALBUM THE INN ALBU M ROBERT BROWNING LONDON SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLAGE 187S [All rights reserved} THE INN ALBUM. i. " That oblong book's the Album \ hand it here ! Exactly ! page on page of gratitude For breakfast, dinner, supper, and the view ! I praise these poets : they leave margin-space \ Each stanza seems to gather skirts around, And primly, trimly, keep the foot's confine, Modest and maidlike ; lubber prose o'ersprawls And straddling stops the path from left to right. Since I want space to do my cipher-work, B THE INN ALBUM. Which poem spares a corner ? What comes first ? 'Hail, calm acclivity, salubrious spot /' (Open the window, we burn daylight, boy !) Or see — succincter beauty, brief and bold — 1 If a fellow can dine On rumpsteaks and port wine He needs not despair Of dining well here — ' ' Here! ' I myself could find a better rhyme ! That bard's a Browning ; he neglects the form : But ah, the sense, ye gods, the weighty sense ! Still, I prefer this classic. Ay, throw wide ! I'll quench the bits of candle yet unburnt. A minute's fresh air, then to cipher- work ! Three little columns hold the whole account : E carte, after which — Blind Hookey — then Cutting- the- Pack, five hundred pounds the cut. 'Tis easy reckoning : I have lost, I think." THE INN ALBUM. ; Two personages occupy this room Shabby-genteel, that's parlour to the inn Perched on a view-commanding eminence ; — Inn which may be a veritable house Where somebody once lived and pleased good taste Till tourists found his coign e of vantage out, And fingered blunt the individual mark And vulgarized things comfortably smooth. On a sprig-pattern-papered wall there brays Complaint to sky Sir Edwin's dripping stag ; His couchant coast-guard creature corresponds ; They face the Huguenot and Light o' the World. Grim o'er the mirror on the mantelpiece, Varnished and coffined, Salmoferox glares, — Possibly at the List of Wines which, framed And glazed, hangs somewhat prominent on peg. 4 - THE INN ALBUM. So much describes the stuffy little room — Vulgar flat smooth respectability : Not so the burst of landscape surging in, Sunrise and all, as he who of the pair Is, plain enough, the younger personage Draws sharp the shrieking curtain, sends aloft The sash, spreads wide and fastens back to wall Shutter and shutter, shows you England's best. He leans into a living glory-bath Of air and light where seems to float and move The wooded watered country, hill and dale And steel-bright thread of stream, a-smoke with mist, A-sparkie with May morning, diamond drift O' the sun-touched dew. Except the red-roofed patch Of half a dozen dwellings that, crept close For hill-side shelter, make the village-clump, THE INN ALBUM. This inn is perched above to dominate — Except such sign of human neighbourhood, And this surmised rather than sensible, There's nothing to disturb absolute peace, The reign of English nature — which means art And civilized existence. Wildness' self Is just the cultured triumph. Presently- Deep solitude, be sure, reveals a Place That knows the right way to defend itself: Silence hems round a burning spot of life. Now, where a Place burns, must a village brood, And where a village broods, an inn should boast — Close and convenient : here you have them both. This inn, the Something- arms — the family's — (Don't trouble Guillim : heralds leave out half !) Is dear to lovers of the picturesque, THE INN ALBUM. And epics have been planned here ; but who plan Take holy orders and find work to do. Painters are more productive, stop a week, Declare the prospect quite a Corot, — ay, For tender sentiment, — themselves incline Rather to handsweep large and liberal ; Then go, but not without success achieved — Haply some pencil- drawing, oak or beech, Ferns at the base and ivies up the bole, On this a slug, on that a butterfly. Nay, he who hooked the salmo pendent here, Also exhibited, this same May-month, 'Foxgloves: a study 1 — so inspires the scene, The air, which now the younger personage Inflates him with till lungs o'erfraught are fain Sigh forth a satisfaction might bestir THE INN ALBUM. Even those tufts of tree-tops to the South P the distance where the green dies off to grey, Which, easy of conjecture, front the Place ; He eyes them, elbows wide, each hand to cheek. His fellow, the much older — either say A youngish-old man or man oldish-young — Sits at the table : wicks are noisome-deep In wax, to detriment of plated ware ; Above — piled, strewn — is store of playing-cards, Counters and all that's proper for a game. He sets down, rubs out figures in the book, Adds and subtracts, puts back here, carries there, Until the summed-up satisfaction stands Apparent, and he pauses o'er the work : Soothes what of brain was busy under brow, 8 THE INN ALBUM. By passage of the hard palm, curing so Wrinkle and crow-foot for a second's space ; Then lays down book and laughs out. No mistake, Such the sum-total — ask Colenso else ! Roused by which laugh, the other turns, laughs too — The youth, the good strong fellow, rough perhaps. " Well, what's the damage — three, or four, or five ? How many figures in a row ? Hand here ! Come now, there's one expense all yours not mine — Scribbling the people's Album over, leaf The first and foremost too ! You think, perhaps, They'll only charge you for a bran-new book Nor estimate the literary loss ? Wait till the small account comes ! * To one nights . THE INN ALBUM. 9 Lodging] for — l beds/ they can't say, — 'pound or so ; Dinner ; Apollinaris, — what they please. Attendance not included; ' last looms large ' Defacement of our Album late enriched With ' — let's see what ! Here, at the window, though ! Ay, breathe the morning and forgive your luck ! Fine enough country for a fool like me To own, as next month, I suppose I shall ! Eh ? True fool's-fortune ! so console yourself. Let's see, however — hand the book, T say ! Well, you've improved the classic by romance. Queer reading ! Verse with parenthetic prose — 1 Hail, calm acclivity, salubrious spot ! ' (Three-two fives) ' life how profitably spent ' (Five-nought, five-nine fives) 'yonder humble cot, 1 (More and more noughts and fives) l in mild content ; io THE INN ALBUM. A7id did my feelings find the natural vent In friendship and in love, how blest my lot ! ' Then follow the dread figures — five ! ' Content!' That's apposite ! Are you content as he — Simpkin the sonneteer ? Ten thousand pounds Give point to his effusion — by so much Leave me the richer and the poorer you After our night's play ; who's content the most, I, you, or Simpkin ? " So the polished snob. The elder man, refinement every inch From brow to boot-end, quietly replies : " Simpkin's no name I know. I had my whim." " Ay, had you ! And such things make friendship thick. THE INN ALBUM. \ Intimates, I may boast we were ; henceforth, Friends — shall it not be ? — who discard reserve, Use plain words, put each dot upon each i, Till death us twain do part ? The bargain's struck ! Old fellow, if you fancy — (to begin — ) I failed to penetrate your scheme last week, You wrong your poor disciple. Oh, no airs ! Because you happen to be twice my age And twenty times my master, must perforce No blink of daylight struggle through the web There's no unwinding ? You entoil my legs, And welcome, for I like it : blind me, — no ! A very pretty piece of shuttle-work Was that — your mere chance question at the club — 1 Do you go anywhere this Whitsuntide 1 Pm off for Paris, there's the Opera — there's THE INN ALBUM. The Salon, their 's a china-sale, — beside Chantilly ; and, for good companionship, There's Such-and-such and So-and-so. Suppose We start together ? ' ( No such holiday /' I told you : ' Paris and the rest be hanged ! Why plague me who am pledged to home-delights f Tm the engaged now ; through whose fault but yours ? On duty. As you well know. Don't I drowse The week away down with the Aunt and Niece ? No help : its leisure, loneliness and love. ' Wish I could take you; but fame travels fast, — A man of much newspaper-paragraph, You scare domestic circles ; and beside Would not you like your lot, that second taste Of nature and approval of the grounds / You might walk early or lie late, so shirk THE INN ALBUM 13 Week-day devotions ; but stay Sunday o'tr, And morning church is obligatory : No mundane garb permissible or dread The butlers privileged monition ! No ! Pack off to Paris, nor wipe tear away / ' Whereon how artlessly the happy flash Followed, by inspiration! " Tell you what — Lefs turn their flank, try things on t'other side / Inns for my money ! Liberty's the life! We'll lie in hiding : there's the crow-nest nook, The tourist's joy, the Inn they rave about, Inn that's out — out of sight and out of mind And out of mischief to all four of us — Aunt and niece, you and me. At night arrive ; it morn ^ find time for just a Pisgah-view If my friend's Land of Promise; then depart. 14 THE INN ALBUM. And while Fm whizzing onward by first train, Bound for our own place {since my Brother sulks - And says 1 shun him like the plague) yourself — Why, you have stepped thence, start from platform, gay Despite the sleepless journey,— love lends wings, — Hug aunt and niece 7vho, none the wiser, wail The faithful advent ! Eh ? ' ' With all my heart,' Said I to you ; said I to mine own self : * Does he believe I fail to comprehend He wants just one more final friendly snack At friend's exchequer ere friend runs to earth, Marries, renounces yielding friends such sport V And did I spoil sport, pull face grim, — nay, grave ? Your pupil does you better credit ! No ! I parleyed with my pass-book, — rubbed my pair At the big balance in my banker's hands, — THE INN ALBUM. 15 Folded a cheque cigar-case-shape, — just wants Filling and signing, — and took train, resolved To execute myselt with decency And let you win — if not Ten thousand quite, Something by way of wind-up, farewell burst Of firework-nosegay ! Where's your fortune fled ? Or is not fortune constant after all ? You lose ten thousand pounds : had I lost half Or half that, I should bite my lips, I think. You man of marble ! Strut and stretch my best On tiptoe, I shall never reach your height. How does the loss feel ? Just one lesson more ! " The more refined man smiles a frown away. " The lesson shall be — only boys like you 16 THE INN ALBUM. Put such a question at the present stage. I had a ball lodge in my shoulder once, And, full five minutes, never guessed the fact ; Next day, I felt decidedly : and still, At twelve years' distance, when I lift my arm A twinge reminds me of the surgeon's probe. Ask me, this day month, how I feel my luck ! And meantime please to stop impertinence, For — don't I know its object? All this chaff Covers the corn, this preface leads to speech, This boy stands forth a hero. ■ There, my lord! Our play was true play, fun not earnest J I Empty your purse, inside out, while my poke Bulges to bursting ? You ca?i badly spare A doit, confess now, Duke though brother be ! While I'm gold-daubed so thickly, spangles drop THE INN ALBUM. 17 And show my father's warehouse-apron : pshaw / Enough ! We've had a palpitating night / Good morning ! Bi'eakfast and forget our dreams ! My mouth's shut, mind ! I tell nor man nor mouse' There, see ! He don't deny it ! Thanks, my boy ! Hero and welcome — only, not on me Make trial of your 'prentice-hand ! Enough ! We've played, I've lost and owe ten thousand pounds, Whereof I muster, at the moment, — well, What's for the bill here and the back to town. Still, I've my little character to keep: You may expect your money at month's end/' The young man at the window turns round quick — A clumsy giant handsome creature ; grasps In his large red the little lean white hand c 18 THE INN ALBUM. Of the other, looks him in the sallow face. " I say now — is it right to so mistake A fellow, force him in mere self-defence To spout like Mister Mild Acclivity In album-language ? You know well enough Whether I like you — like's no album-word, Anyhow : point me to one soul beside In the wide world I care one straw about ! I first set eyes on you a year ago ; Since when you've done me good — I'll stick to it- More than I got in the whole twenty-five That make my life up, Oxford years and all — Throw in the three I fooled away abroad, Seeing myself and nobody more sage Until I met you, and you made me man THE INN ALBUM. 19 Such as the sort is and the fates allow. I do think, since we two kept company, I've learnt to know a little — all through you ! It's nature if I like you. Taunt away ! As if I need you teaching me my place — The snob I am, the Duke your brother is, When just the good you did was — teaching me My own trade, how a snob and millionnaire May lead his life and let the Duke's alone, Clap wings, free jackdaw, on his steeple-perch, Burnish his black to gold in sun and air, Nor pick up stray plumes, strive to match in strut Regular peacocks who can't fly an inch Over the court-yard-paling. Head and heart (That's album- style) are older than you know, For all your knowledge : boy, perhaps— ay, boy c 2 THE INN ALBUM. Had his adventure, just as he were man — His ball-experience in the shoulder blade, His bit of life-long ache to recognize, Although he bears it cheerily about, Because you came and clapped him on the back, Advised him ' Walk and wear the aching off ! ' Why, I was minded to sit down for life Just in Dalmatia, build a sea-side tower High on a rock, and so expend my days Pursuing chemistry or botany Or, very like, astronomy because I noticed stars shone when I passed the place : Letting my cash accumulate the while In England — to lay out in lump at last As Ruskin should direct me ! All or some Of which should I have done or tried to do, THE INN ALBUM. : And preciously repented, one fine day, Had you discovered Timon, climbed his rock And scaled his tower, some ten years thence, suppose. And coaxed his story from him ! Don't I see The pair conversing ! It's a novel writ Already, I'll be bound, — our dialogue ! \ What ? ' cried the elder and yet youthful man — So did the eye flash 'neath the lordly front, And the imposing presence swell with scorn, As the haught high-bred beari7ig and dispose Contrasted with his interlocutor The flabby low-born who, of bulk before, Had steadily increased, one stone per week, Since his abstention from horse-exercise : — ' What ? you, as rich as Rothschild, left, you say, London the very year you came of age, 22 THE INN ALBUM. Because your father manufactured goods — Commission- agent /light of Manchester — Partly, and partly through a baby case Of disappointment I've pumped out at last — And here you spend life's prime in gaining flesh And giving science one more asteroid '? ' Brief, my dear fellow, you instructed me, At Alfred's and not Istria ! proved a snob May turn a million to account although His brother be no Duke, and see good days Without the girl he lost and some one gained. The end is, after one year's tutelage, Having, by your help, touched society, Polo, Tent-pegging, Hurlingham, the Rink — I leave all these delights, by your advice, And marry my young pretty cousin here THE INN A LB. MM 23 Whose place, whose oaks ancestral you behold. (Her father was in partnership with mine — Does not his purchase look a pedigree ?) My million will be tail and tassels smart To this plump-bodied kite, this house and land Which, set a-soaring, pulls me, soft as sleep, Along life's pleasant meadow, — arm left free To lock a friend's in, — whose, but yours, old boy ? Arm in arm glide we over rough and smooth, While hand, to pocket held, saves cash from cards. Now, if you don't esteem ten thousand pounds ( — Which I shall probably discover snug Hid somewhere in the column-corner capped With ' Credit] based on ' Balance] — which, I swear, By this time next month I shall quite forget Whether I lost or won — ten thousand pounds, 24 THE INN ALBUM. Which at this instant I would give . . let's see, For Galopin — nay, for that Gainsborough Sir Richard won't sell, and, if bought by me, Would get my glance and praise some twice a year, — ) Well, if you don't esteem that price dirt-cheap For teaching me Dalmatia was mistake — Why then, my last illusion-bubble breaks, My one discovered phoenix proves a goose, My cleverest of all companions — oh, Was worth nor ten pence nor ten thousand pounds ! Come ! Be yourself again ! So endeth here The morning's lesson ! Never while life lasts Do I touch card again. To breakfast now ! To bed — I can't say, since you needs must start For station early — oh, the down-train still, First plan and best plan — townward trip be hanged ! THE INN ALBUM. 25 You're due at your big brother's — pay that debt, Then owe me not a farthing ! Order eggs— And who knows but there's trout obtainable ? " The fine man looks well nigh malignant : then — "Sir, please subdue your manner ! Debts are debts : I pay mine — debts of this sort — certainly. What do I care how you regard your gains, Want them or want them not ? The thing / want Is — not to have a story circulate From club to club — how, bent on clearing out Young So-and-so, young So-and-so cleaned me, Then set the empty kennel flush again, Ignored advantage and forgave his friend — For why ? There was no wringing blood from stone ! 26 THE INN ALBUM. Oh, don't be savage ! You would hold your tongue, Bite it in two, as man may; but those small Hours in the smoking-room, when instance apt Rises to tongue's root, tingles on to tip, And the thinned company consists of six Capital well-known fellows one may trust ! Next week, it's in the ' World.' No, thank you much. I owe ten thousand pounds : I'll pay them !" " Now,— This becomes funny. You've made friends with me : I can't help knowing of the ways and means ! Or stay ! they say your brother closets up Correggio's long lost Leda : if he means To give you that, and if you give it me . , ." THE INN ALBUM. 27 "/ polished snob off to aristocrat? You compliment me ! father's apron still Sticks out from son's court-vesture ; still silk purse Roughs finger with some bristle sow-ear-born ! Well, neither I nor you mean harm at heart ! I owe you and shall pay you : which premised, Why should what follows sound like flattery ? The fact is — you do compliment too much Your humble master, as I own I am ; You owe me no such thanks as you protest. The polisher needs precious stone no less Than precious stone needs polisher : believe I struck no tint from out you but I found Snug lying first 'neath surface hair-breadth-deep ! Beside, I liked the exercise : with skill Goes love to show skill for skill's sake. You see, 28 THE INN ALBUM. I'm old and understand things : too absurd It were you pitched and tossed away your life, As diamond were Scotch-pebble ! all the more, That I myself misused a stone of price. Born and bred clever — people used to say Clever as most men, if not something more — Yet here I stand a failure, cut awry Or left opaque, — no brilliant named and known. Whate'er my inner stuff, my outside's blank ; I'm nobody — or rather, look that same — I'm — who I am — and know it ; but I hold What in my hand out for the world to see? What ministry, what mission, or what book — I'll say, book even ? Not a sign of these ! I began — laughing — ' All these when I like / ' I end with — well, you've hit it ! — ' This boy's cheque THE INN ALBUM. 29 For just as many thousands as he'll spare ! ' The first — I could, and would not ; your spare cash I would, and could not : have no scruple, pray, But, as I hoped to pocket yours, pouch mine — When you are able ! " "Which is — when to be? I've heard, great characters require a fall Of fortune to show greatness by uprise : They touch the ground to jollily rebound, ■ Add to the Album ! Let a fellow share Your secret of superiority ! I know, my banker makes the money breed Money ; I eat and sleep, he simply takes The dividends and cuts the coupons off, Sells out, buys in, keeps doubling, tripling cash, While I do nothing but receive and spend. 30 THE INN ALBUM. But you, spontaneous generator, hatch A wind- egg ; cluck, and forth struts Capital As Interest to me from egg of gold. I am grown curious : pay me by all means ! How will you make the money ? " " Mind your own- Not my affair. Enough : or money, or Money's worth, as the case may be, expect Ere month's end, — keep but patient for a month ! Who's for a stroll to station ? Ten's the time ; Your man, with my things, follow in the trap \ At stoppage of the down-train, play the arrived On platform and you'll show the due fatigue Of the night- journey, — not much sleep, — perhaps, Your thoughts were on before you — yes, indeed, You join them, being happily awake THE INN ALBUM. 31 With thought's sole object as she smiling sits At breakfast-table. I shall dodge meantime In and out station-precinct, wile away The hour till up my engine pants and smokes. No doubt, she goes to fetch you. Never fear ! She gets no glance at me, who shame such saints ! " 32 THE INN ALBUM. II. So, they ring bell, give orders, pay, depart Amid profuse acknowledgment from host Who well knows what may bring the younger back, Light the cigar, descend in twenty steps The ' calm acclivity] inhale — beyond Tobacco's balm — the better smoke of turf And wood fire, — cottages at cookery F the morning, — reach the main road straightening on 'Twixt wood and wood, two black walls full of night Slow to disperse, though mists thin fast before The advancing foot, and leave the flint-dust fine THE INN ALBUM. 33 Each speck with its fire-sparkle. Presently The road's end with the sky's beginning mix In one magnificence of glare, due East, So high the sun rides, — May's the merry month. They slacken pace : the younger stops abrupt, Discards cigar, looks his friend full in face. " All right ; the station comes in view at end ; Five minutes from the beech-clump, there you are ! I say : let's halt, let's borrow yonder gate Of its two magpies, sit and have a talk ! Do let a fellow speak a moment ! More I think about and less I like the thing — No, you must let me ! Now, be good for once ! Ten thousand pounds be done for, dead and damned ! D 34 THE INN ALBUM. We played for love, not hate : yes, hate ! I hate Thinking you beg or borrow or reduce To strychnine some poor devil of a lord Licked at Unlimited Loo. I had the cash To lose — you knew that ! — lose and none the less Whistle to-morrow : it's not every chap Affords to take his punishment so well ! Now, don't be angry with a friend whose fault Is that he thinks — upon my soul, I do — Your head the best head going. Oh, one sees Names in the newspaper — great this, great that, Gladstone, Carlyle, the Laureate : — much I care ! Others have their opinion, I keep mine : Which means — by right you ought to have the things I want a head for. Here's a pretty place, My cousin's place, and presently my place, THE INN ALBUM. 35 Not yours ! I'll tell you how it strikes a man. My cousin's fond of music and of course Plays the piano (it won't be for long !) A bran-new bore she calls a ' semigrand ' Rose- wood and pearl, that blocks the drawing-room, And cost no end of money. Twice a week Down comes Herr Somebody and seats himself, Sets to work teaching — with his teeth on edge — I've watched the rascal. ' Does he play first-rate ? ' I «ask : ' I rather think so] answers she— ' He's What s-his- Name /' — ' Why give you lessons then ? ' — I I pay three guineas and the train beside? — - 1 This instrument, has he one such at home ? ' — 1 He ? Has to practise o?i a table-top, When he carit hire the proper thing' — * / see ! You've the piano, he the skill, and God D 2 36 THE INN ALBUM. The distribution of such gifts. 1 So here : After your teaching, I shall sit and strum Polkas on this piano of a Place You'd make resound with ' Rule Britannia ' /" " Thanks ! I don't say but this pretty cousin's place, Appendaged with your million, tempts my hand As key-board I might touch with some effect." u Then, why not have obtained the like ? House, land, Money, are things obtainable, you see, By clever head-work : ask my father else ! You, who teach me, why not have learned, yourself? Played like Herr Somebody with power to thump And flourish and the rest, not bend demure Pointing out blunders — * Sharp, not natural ! THE INN ALBUM. 37 Permit me — on the black key use the thumb /' There's some fatality, I'm sure ! You say ' Marry the cousin, that 's your proper move f 1 And I do use the thumb and hit the sharp : You should have listened to your own head's hint T As I to you ! The puzzle's past my power, How you have managed — with such stuff, such means — Not to be rich nor great nor happy man : Of which three good things where's a sign at all ? Just look at Dizzy ! Come, — what tripped your heels ? Instruct a goose that boasts wings and can't fly ! I wager I have guessed it ! — never found The old solution of the riddle fail ! 1 Who was the woman ? ' I don't ask, but — Where P the path of life stood she who tripped you % • " " Goose 38 THE INN ALBUM. You truly are ! I own to fifty years. Why don't I interpose and cut out — you ? Compete with five and twenty ? Age, my boy ! " " Old man, no nonsense ! — even to a boy That's ripe at least for rationality Rapped into him, as may be mine was, once ! I've had my small adventure lesson me Over the knuckles ! — likely, I forget The sort of figure youth cuts now and then, Competing with old shoulders but young head Despite the fifty grizzling years ! " " Aha ? Then that means — just the bullet in the blade Which brought Dalmatia on the brain,— that, too, THE INN ALBUM. 39 Came of a fatal creature ? Can't pretend Now for the first time to surmise as much ! Make a clean breast ! Recount ! a secret's safe 'Twixt you, me and the gate-post ! " " — Can't pretend, Neither, to never have surmised your wish ! It's no use, — case of unextracted ball — Winces at finger-touching. Let things be ! " " Ah, if you love your love still ! I hate mine." " I can't hate." " I won't teach you ; and won't tell You, therefore, what you please to ask of me 40 THE INN ALBUM. As if I, also, may not have my ache ! " " My sort of ache ? No, no ! and yet — perhaps ! All comes of thinking you superior still. But live and learn ! I say ! Time's up ! Good jump L You old, indeed ! I fancy there's a cut Across the wood, a grass path : shall we try ? It's venturesome, however ! " " Stop, my boy ! Don't think I'm stingy of experience ! Life — It's like this wood we leave. Should you and I Go wandering about there, though the gaps We went in and came out by were opposed As the two poles, still, somehow, all the same, By nightfall we should probably have chanced THE INN ALBUM. 41 On much the same main points of interest — Both of us measured girth of mossy trunk, Stript ivy from its strangled prey, clapped hands At squirrel, sent a fir-cone after crow, And so forth, — never mind what time betwixt. So in our lives ; allow I entered mine Another way than you : 'tis possible I ended just by knocking head against That plaguy low-hung branch yourself began By getting bump from \ as at last you too May stumble o'er that stump which first of all Bade me walk circumspectly. Head and feet Are vulnerable both, and I, foot-sure, Forgot that ducking down saves brow from bruise. I, early old, played young man four years since And failed confoundedly : so, hate alike 42 THE INN ALBUM. Failure and who caused failure, — curse her cant ! " " Oh, I see ! You, though somewhat past the prime, Were taken with a rosebud beauty ! Ah — But how should chits distinguish ? She admired Your marvel of a mind, I'll undertake ! But as to body . . nay, I mean . . that is, When years have told on face and figure ..." " Thanks, Mister Sufficiently - Instruct ed ! Such No doubt was bound to be the consequence To suit your self-complacency : she liked My head enough, but loved some heart beneath Some head with plenty of brown hair a-top After my young friend's fashion ! What becomes THE INN ALBUM. 43 Of that fine speech you made a minute since About the man of middle age you found A formidable peer at twenty-one ? So much for your mock-modesty ! and yet I back your first against this second sprout Of observation, insight, what you please. My middle age, Sir, had too much success ! It's odd : my case occurred four years ago — I finished just while you commenced that turn I' the wood of life that takes us to the wealth Of honeysuckle, heaped for who can reach. Now, I don't boast : it's bad style, and beside, The feat proves easier than it looks : I plucked Full many a flower unnamed in that bouquet (Mostly of peonies and poppies, though !) Good nature sticks into my button-hole. 44 THE INN ALBUM. Therefore it was with nose in want of snuff Rather than Ess or Psidium, that I chanced On what — so far from ' rosebud beauty ' . . Well — She's dead : at least you never heard her name ; She was no courtly creature, had nor birth Nor breeding — mere fine-lady-breeding ; but Oh, such a wonder of a woman ! Grand As a Greek statue ! Stick fine clothes on that, Style that a Duchess or a Queen, — you know, Artists would make an outcry : all the more, That she had just a statue's sleepy grace Which broods o'er its own beauty. Nay, her fault (Don't laugh !) was just perfection : for suppose Only the little flaw, and I had peeped Inside it, learned what soul inside was like. At Rome some tourist raised the grit beneath THE INN ALBUM. 45 A Venus' forehead with his whittling-knife — I wish, — now, — I had played that brute, brought blood To surface from the depths I fancied chalk ! As it was, her mere face surprised so much That I stopped short there, struck on heap, as stares The cockney stranger at a certain bust With drooped eyes, — she's the thing I have in mind, — Down at my Brother's. All sufficient prize — Such outside ! Now, — confound me for a prig ! — Who cares ? I'll make a clean breast once for all ! Beside, you've heard the gossip. My life long I've been a woman-liker, — liking means Loving and so on. There's a lengthy list By this time I shall have to answer for — So say the good folks : and they don't guess half — For the worst is, let once collecting-itch 46 THE INN ALBUM. Possess you, and, with perspicacity Keeps growing such a greediness that theft Follows at no long distance, — there's the fact ! I knew that on my Leporello-list Might figure this, that and the other name Of feminine desirability, But if I happened to desire inscribe, Along with these, the only Beautiful — Here was the unique specimen to snatch Or now or never. ' Beautiful ' I said — 1 Beautiful ' say in cold blood, — boiling then To tune of ' Haste, secure whatever the cost This rarity, die in the act, be damned, So you complete collection, crown your list ! ' It seemed as though the whole world, once aroused By the first notice of such wonder's birth, THE INN ALBUM. 47 Would break bounds to contest my prize with me The first discoverer, should she but emerge From that safe den of darkness where she dozed Till I stole in, that country-parsonage Where, country-parson's daughter, motherless, Brotherless, sisterless, for eighteen years She had been vegetating lily-like. Her father was my brother's tutor, got The living that way : him I chanced to see — Her I saw — her the world would grow one eye To see, I felt no sort of doubt at all ! 1 Secure her/ 1 cried the devil : ' afterward Arrange for the disposal of the prize P The devil's doing ! yet I seem to think — Now, when all's done, — think with ' a head reposed ' In French phrase — hope I think I meant to do 46 THE INN ALBUM. All requisite for such a rarity When I should be at leisure, have due time To learn requirement. But in evil day — Bless me, at week's end, long as any year, The father must begin * Young Somebody ', Much recommended— for I break a rule — Comes here to read, next Long Vacation .' * Young P That did it. Had the epithet been ' rich] 1 Noble] ' a genius] even * handsome] — but — ' Young'!" " I say — just a word ! I want to know- You are not married ? " " I ? " THE INN ALBUM. 49 " Nor ever were ? " "Never! Why?" " Oh, then — never mind ! Go on ! I had a reason for the question." " Come,— You could not be the young man ? " " No, indeed ! Certainly — if you never married her ! " " That I did not : and there's the curse, you'll see ! Nay, all of it's one curse, my life's mistake Which, nourished with manure that's warranted 50 THE INN ALBUM. To make the plant bear wisdom, blew out full In folly beyond field-flower-foolishness ! The lies I used to tell my womankind, Knowing they disbelieved me all the time Though they required my lies, their decent due, This woman — not so much believed, I'll say, As just anticipated from my mouth : Since being true, devoted, constant — she Found constancy, devotion, truth, the plain And easy commonplace of character. No mock-heroics but seemed natural To her who underneath the face, I knew Was fairness' self, possessed a heart, I judged Must correspond in folly just as far Beyond the common, — and a mind to match, — Not made to puzzle conjurors like me THE INN ALBUM. 51 Who, therein, proved the fool who fronts you, Sir, And begs leave to cut short the ugly rest ! 1 Trust me /' I said : she trusted. 'Marry me I 1 Or rather, ' We are married : when, the rite ? ' That brought on the collector's next-day qualm At countings acquisition's cost. There lay My marvel, there my purse more light by much Because of its late lie-expenditure : Ill-judged such moment to make fresh demand — Bid cage as well as catch my rarity ! So, I began explaining. At first word Outbroke the horror. * Then, my truths were lies / ' I tell you, such an outbreak, such new strange All-unsuspected revelation — soul As supernaturally grand as face Was fair beyond example — that at once 52 THE INN ALBUM. Either I lost — or, if it please you, found My senses, — stammered somehow — f Jest ! and now, Earnest ! Forget all else but — heart has loved, Does love, shall love you ever / take the hand /' Not she ! no marriage for superb disdain, Contempt incarnate ! " " Yes, it's different, — It's only like in being four years since. I see now ! " " Well, what did disdain do next, Think you ? " " That's past me : did not marry you ! — That's the main thing I care for, I suppose. THE INN ALBUM. 53 Turned nun or what ? " "Why, married in a month Some parson, some smug crop-haired smooth-chinned sort Of curate-creature, I suspect, — dived down, Down, deeper still, and came up somewhere else — I don't know where — I've not tried much to know, — In short she's happy : what the clodpoles call ' Countrified ■ with a vengeance ! leads the life Respectable and all that drives you mad : Still — where, I don't know, and that's best for both." " Well, that she did not like you, I conceive. But why should you hate her, I want to know ? " " My good young friend, — because or her or else 54 THE INN ALBUM Malicious Providence I have to hate. For, what I tell you proved the turning-point Of my whole life and fortune toward success Or failure. If I drown, I lay the fault Much on myself who caught at reed not rope, But more on reed which, with a packthread's pith, Had buoyed me till the minute's cramp could thaw And I strike out afresh and so be saved. It's easy saying — I had sunk before, Disqualified myself by idle days And busy nights, long since, from holding hard On cable, even, had fate cast me such ! You boys don't know how many times men fail Perforce o' the little to succeed i' the large, Husband their strength, let slip the petty prey, Collect the whole power for the final pounce THE INN ALBUM. 55 My fault was the mistaking man's main prize For intermediate boy's diversion ; clap Of boyish hands here frightened game away Which, once gone, goes for ever. Oh, at first I took the anger easily, nor much Minded the anguish — having learned that storms Subside, and teapot-tempests are akin. Time would arrange things, mend whate'er might be Somewhat amiss ; precipitation, eh ? Reason and rhyme prompt — reparation ! Tiffs End properly in marriage and a dance ! I said t We'll marry, make the past a blank ' — And never was such damnable mistake ! That interview, that laying bare my soul, As it was first, so was it last chance — one And only. Did I write ? Back letter came 56 THE INN ALBUM. Unopened as it went. Inexorable She fled, I don't know where, consoled herself With the smug curate-creature : chop and change ! Sure am I, when she told her shaveling all His Magdalen's adventure, tears were shed, Forgiveness evangelically shewn 4 Loose hair and lifted eye,' — as someone says. And now, he's worshipped for his pains, the sneak ! " "Well, but your turning-point of life, — what's here To hinder you contesting Finsbury With Orton, next election ? I don't see . . .' " Not you ! But / see. Slowly, surely, creeps Day by day o'er me the conviction — here Was life's prize grasped at, gained, and then let go ! THE INN ALBUM. 57 — That with her — may be, for her — I had felt Ice in me melt, grow steam, drive to effect Any or all the fancies sluggish here I' the head that needs the hand she would not take And I shall never lift now. Lo, your wood — Its turnings which I likened life to ! Well, — There she stands, ending every avenue, Her visionary presence on each goal I might have gained had we kept side by side ! Still string nerve and strike foot ? Her frown forb ids The steam congeals once more : I'm old again ! Therefore I hate myself — but how much worse Do not I hate who would not understand, Let me repair things — no, but sent a-slide My folly faulteringly, stumblingly Down, down and deeper down until I drop 58 THE INN ALBUM. Upon — the need of your ten thousand pounds And consequently loss of mine ! I lose Character, cash, nay, common sense itself Recounting such a lengthy cock-and-bull Adventure, lose my temper in the act. . ." " And lose beside, — if I may supplement The list of losses, — train and ten-o'clock ! Hark, pant and puff, there travels the swart sign ! So much the better ! You're my captive now ! I'm glad you trust a fellow : friends grow thick This way — that's twice said ; we were thickish, though, Even last night, and, ere night comes again, I prophesy good luck to both of us ! For see now ! — back to x balmy eminence' Or * calm acclivity ' or what's the word, THE INN ALBUM. 59 Bestow you there an hour, concoct at ease A sonnet for the Album, while I put Bold face on, best foot forward, make for house, March in to aunt and niece, and tell the truth — (Even white-lying goes against my taste After your little story.) Oh, the niece Is rationality itself ! The aunt — If she's amenable to reason too — Why, you stopped short to pay her due respect, And let the Duke wait (I'll work well the Duke). If she grows gracious, I return for you 3 If thunder's in the air, why — bear your doom, Dine on rump-steaks and port, and shake the dust Of aunty from your shoes as off you go By evening-train, nor give the thing a thought How you shall pay me — that's as sure as fate, 60 THE INN ALBUM. Old fellow ! Off with you, face left about ! Yonder' s the path I have to pad. You see, I'm in good spirits, God knows why ! Perhaps Because the woman did not marry you — Who look so hard at me, — and have the right, One must be fair and own ! " The two stand still Under an oak. " Look here ! " resumes the youth. " I never quite knew how I came to like You — so much — whom I ought not court at all : Nor how you had a leaning just to me Who am assuredly not worth your pains For there must needs be plenty such as you THE INN ALBUM. 61 Somewhere about, — although I can't say where, — Able and willing to teach all you know ; While — how can you have missed a score like me With money and no wit, precisely each A pupil for your purpose, were it — ease Fool's poke of tutor's honorariwn-izz ? And yet, howe'er it came about, I felt At once my master : you as prompt descried Your man, I warrant, so was bargain struck. Now, these same lines of liking, loving, run Sometimes so close together they converge — Life's great adventures — you know what I mean — In people. Do you know, as you advanced, It got to be uncommonly like fact We two had fallen in with — liked and loved Just the same woman in our different ways ? 62 THE INN ALBUM. I began life — poor groundling as I prove — Winged and ambitious to fly high : why not ? There's something in ' Don Quixote ' to the point, My shrewd old father used to quote and praise — 1 Am I born man V asks Sancho, ' being man, By possibility I may be Pope ! ' So, Pope I meant to make myself, by step And step, whereof the first should be to find A perfect woman ; and I tell you this — Jf what I fixed on, in the order due Of undertakings, as next step, had first Of all disposed itself to suit my tread, And I had been, the day I came of age, Returned at head of poll for Westminster — Nay, and moreover summoned by the Queen At week's end, when my maiden- speech bore fruit, THE INN ALBUM. 63 To form and head a Tory ministry — It would not have seemed stranger, no, nor been More strange to me,, as now I estimate, Than what did happen — sober truth, no dream. I saw my wonder of a woman, — laugh, I'm past that ! — in Commemoration- week. A plenty have I seen since, fair and foul, — With eyes, too, helped by your sagacious wink ; But one to match that marvel — no least trace, Least touch of kinship and community ! The end was — I did somehow state the fact, Did, with no matter what imperfect words, One way or other give to understand That woman, soul and body were her slave Would she but take, but try them — any test Of will, and some poor test of power beside : 64 THE INN ALBUM. So did the strings within my brain grow tense And capable of . . . hang similitudes ! She answered kindly but beyond appeal. ( No sort of hope for me, who came too late. She was another 's. Love went — mine to her. Hers just as loyally to someone else. 1 Of course ! I might expect it ! Nature's law — Given the peerless woman, certainly Somewhere shall be the peerless man to match ! I acquiesced at once, submitted me In something of a stupor, went my way. I fancy there had been some talk before Of somebody — her father or the like — To coach me in the holidays, — that's how I came to get the sight and speech of her, — But I had sense enough to break off sharp, THE INN ALBUM. 65 Save both of us the pain." " Quite right there ! " "Eh? Quite wrong, it happens ! Now comes worst of all ! Yes, I did sulk aloof and let alone The lovers — / disturb the angel-mates ? " " Seraph paired off with cherub ! " " Thank you ! While I never plucked up courage to inquire Who he was, even, — certain- sure of this, That nobody I knew of had blue wings And wore a star-crown as he needs must do, — F 66 THE INN ALBUM. Some little lady, — plainish, pock-marked girl, — Finds out my secret in my woeful face, Comes up to me at the Apollo Ball, And pityingly pours her wine and oil This way into the wound : ' Dear f-f -friend, Why waste affection thus on — must I say, A somewhat worthless object ? Who's her choice — Irrevocable as deliberate — Out of the wide world ? I shall ?iame no names — But there's a person in society, Who, blessed with rank and talent, has grown grey In idleness and sin of every sort Except hypocrisy : he's thrice her age, A byewordfor c successes with the sex ' As the French say — and, as we ought to say, Consummately a liar and a rogue, THE INN ALBUM. 67 Since — show me Where's the woman won without The help of this one lit which she believes — That — never mind how things have come to pass, And let who loves have loved a thousand times — All the same he now loves her only, loves Her ever ! if by l won ' you just mean { sold,' Thai's quite another compact. Well, this scamp, Continuifig descent from bad to worse y Must leave his fine and fashionable prey ( Who—fathered, brothered, husbanded, — are hedged A bout with thorny danger) and apply His arts to this poor country ignorance Who sees forthwith in the first rag of man Her model hero ! Why continue waste On such a woman treasures of a heart Would yet find solace, — yes, my ff friend — 68 THE INN ALBUM. In some congenial — fiddle-diddle -dee ? ' " " Pray, is the pleasant gentleman described Exact the portrait which my * ' f-f -friends ' Recognize as so like ? Tis evident You half surmised the sweet original Could be no other than myself, just now ! Your stop and start were flattering ! " " Of course Caricature's allowed for in a sketch ! The longish nose becomes a foot in length, The swarthy cheek gets copper-coloured, — still, Prominent beak and dark-hued skin are facts : And 'parson's daughter' — ' young man coachable 1 - 1 Elderly party I — 6 four years since 1 — were facts THE INN ALBUM. 69 To fasten on, a moment ! Marriage, though— That made the difference, I hope." " All right ! I never married ; wish I had — and then Unwish it : people kill their wives, sometimes ! I hate my mistress, but I'm murder-free. In your case, where's the grievance ? You came last, The earlier bird picked up the worm. Suppose You, in the glory of your twenty-one, Had happened to precede myself ! 'tis odds But this gigantic juvenility, This offering of a big arm's bony hand — I'd rather shake than feel shake me, I know — Had moved my dainty mistress to admire An altogether new Ideal — deem 70 THE INN ALBUM. Idolatry less due to life's decline Productive of experience, powers mature By dint of usage, the made man — no boy That's all to make ! I was the earlier bird — And what I found, I let fall \ what you missed, Who is the fool that blames you for ? " " Myselt— For nothing, everything ! For finding out She, whom I worshipped, was a worshipper In turn of . . . but why stir up settled mud ? She married him — the fifty-years- old rake — How you have teazed the talk from me ! At last My secret's told you. I inquired no more, Nay, stopped ears when informants unshut mouth ; Enough that she and he live, deuce take where, THE INN ALBUM. 71 Married and happy, or else miserable — It's * Cut-the-pack ; ' she turned up ace or knave And I left Oxford, England, dug my hole Out in Dalmatia, till you drew me thence Badger-like, — ' Back to London ' was the word — ' Do things ', a many, there, yonfa?icy hard, ril undertake are easy /' — the advice. I took it, had my twelvemonth's fling with you — (Little hand holding large hand pretty tight For all its delicacy — eh, my lord ?) Until when, t'other day, I got a turn Somehow and gave up tired : and * J?est / ' bade you, 1 Marry your cousin, double your estate, And take your ease by all means /' So, I loll On this the springy sofa, mine next month — Or should loll, but that you must needs beat rough 72 THE INN ALBUM. The very down you spread me out so smooth. I wish this confidence were still to make ! Ten thousand pounds ? You owe me twice the sum For stirring up the black depths ! There's repose Or, at least, silence when misfortune seems All that one has to bear \ but folly — yes, Folly, it all was ! Fool to be so meek, So humble, — such a coward rather say ! Fool, to adore the adorer of a fool ! Not to have faced him, tried (a useful hint) My big and bony, here, against the bunch Of lily-coloured five with signet-ring, Most like, for little-finger's sole defence — Much as you flaunt the blazon there I I grind My teeth, that bite my very heart, to think — To know I might have made that woman mine THE INN ALBUM. 73 But for the folly of the coward — know — Or what's the good of my apprenticeship This twelvemonth to a master in the art ? Mine — had she been mine —just one moment mine For honour, for dishonour — anyhow, So that my life, instead of stagnant . . . Well, You've poked and proved stagnation is not sleep — Hang you ! " " Hang you for an ungrateful goose ! All this means— I who since I knew you first Have helped you to conceit yourself this cock O' the dunghill with all hens to pick and choose — Ought to have helped you when shell first was chipped By chick that wanted prompting ' Use the spur /' While I was elsewhere putting mine to use. 74 THE INN ALBUM. As well might I blame you who kept aloof, Seeing you could not guess I was alive, Never advised me ' Do as I have done — Reverence such a jewel as your luck Has scratched up to enrich unworthiness ! * As your behaviour was, should mine have been, — Faults which we both, too late, are sorry for — Opposite ages, each with its mistake : ' If youth but would — if age but could, 1 you know ! Don't let us quarrel ! Come, we're — young and old- Neither so badly off ! Go you your way, Cut to the Cousin ! I'll to Inn, await The issue of diplomacy with Aunt, And wait my hour on ' calm acclivity ' In rumination manifold — perhaps About ten thousand pounds I have to pay ! " THE INN ALBUM. 75 III. Now, as the elder lights the fresh cigar Conducive to resource, and saunteringly Betakes him to the left-hand backward path, — While, much sedate, the younger strides away To right and makes for — islanded in lawn And edged with shrubbery — the brilliant bit Of Barry's building that's the Place, — a pair Of women, at this nick of time, one young, One very young, are ushered with due pomp Into the same Inn-parlour — ' disengaged Entirely now P the obsequious landlord smiles, 76 THE INN ALBUM. 1 Since the late occupants — whereof but one Was quite a stranger ! — (smile enforced by bow) ' Left, a full two hours since, to catch the train, Probably for the stranger's sake! ' (Bow, smile, And backing out from door soft closed behind.) Woman and girl, the two, alone inside, Begin their talk : the girl, with sparkling eyes — " Oh, I forewent him purposely ! but you, Who joined at — journeyed from the Junction here I wonder how he failed your notice ! Few Stop at our station : fellow-passengers Assuredly you were — I saw indeed His servant, therefore he arrived all right. I wanted, you know why, to have you safe THE INN ALBUM. 77 Inside here first of all, so dodged about The dark end of the platform ; that's his way — To swing from station straight to avenue And stride the half a mile for exercise. I fancied you might notice the huge boy. He soon gets o'er the distance ; at the house He'll hear I went to meet him and have missed ; He'll wait. No minute of the hour's too much Meantime for our preliminary talk : First word of which must be — O good beyond Expression of all goodness — you to come ! " The elder, the superb one, answers slow. " There was no helping that. You called for me, Cried, rather : and my old heart answered you. 78 THE INN ALBUM. Still, thank me ! since the effort breaks a vow — At least, a promise to myself." " I know ! How selfish get you happy folks to be ! If I should love my husband, must I needs Sacrifice straightway all the world to him, As you do ? Must I never dare leave house On this dread Arctic expedition, out And in again, six mortal hours, though you — You even, my own friend for evermore, Adjure me— fast your friend till rude love pushed Poor friendship from her vantage — just to grant The quarter of a whole day's company And counsel ? This makes counsel so much more Need and necessity. For here's my block THE INN ALBUM. 79 Of stumbling : in the face of happiness So absolute, fear chills me. If such change In heart be but love's easy consequence, Do I love ? If to marry mean — let go All I now live for, should my marriage be ? " The other never once has ceased to gaze On the great elm-tree in the open, posed Placidly full in front, smooth bole, broad branch, And leafage, one green plenitude of May. The gathered thought runs into speech at last. " O you exceeding beauty, bosomful Of lights and shades, murmurs and silences, Sun-warmth, dew-coolness, — squirrel, bee and bird, High, higher, highest, till the blue proclaims 8o . THE INN ALBUM. ' Leave earth, there's 7iothi?ig better till next step Heavenward /' — so, off flies what has wings to help ! " And henceforth they alternate. Says the girl — " That's saved then : marriage spares the early taste." " Four years now, since my eye took note of tree ! " " If I had seen no other tree but this My life-long, while yourself came straight, you said, From tree which overstretched you and was just One fairy tent with pitcher-leaves that held Wine, and a flowery wealth of suns and moons, And magic fruits whereon the angels feed — I looking out of window on a tree THE INN ALBUM. 81 Like yonder — otherwise well-known, much-liked, Yet just an English ordinary elm — What marvel if you cured me of conceit My elm's bird bee and squirrel tenantry Was quite the proud possession I supposed ? And there is evidence you tell me true, The fairy marriage- tree reports itself Good guardian of the perfect face and form, Fruits of four years' protection ! Married friend, You are more beautiful than ever ! " " Yes— I think that likely. I could well dispense With all thought fair in feature, mine or no, Leave but enough of face to know me by — With all found fresh in youth except such strength G 82 THE INN ALBUM. As lets a life-long labour earn repose Death sells at just that price, they say; and so, Possibly, what I care not for, I keep." " How you must know he loves you ! Chill, before, Fear sinks to freezing. Could I sacrifice — Assured my lover simply loves my soul — One nose-breadth of fair feature? No, indeed ! Your own love. . ." " The preliminary hour — Don't waste it ! " " But I can't begin at once ! The angel's self that comes to hear me speak Drives away all the care about the speech. THE INN ALBUM. 83 What an angelic mystery you are — Now — that is certain ! when I knew you first, No break of halo and no bud of wing ! I thought I knew you, saw you, round and through, Like a glass ball ; suddenly, four years since, You vanished, how and whither ? Mystery ! Wherefore ? No mystery at all : you loved, Were loved again, and left the world of course, — Who would not ? Lapped four years in fairyland, Out comes, by no less wonderful a chance, The changeling, touched athwart her trellised bliss Of blush-rose bower by just the old friend's voice That's now struck dumb at her own potency. / talk of my small fortunes ? Tell me yours — Rather ! The fool I ever was — I am, You see that : the true friend you ever had, 84 THE INN ALBUM. You have, you also recognize. Perhaps, Giving you all the love of all my heart, Nature, that's niggard in me, has denied The after-birth of love there's someone claims, — This huge boy, swinging up the avenue ; And I want counsel — is defect in me, Or him who has no right to raise the love ? My cousin asks my hand : he's young enough, Handsome, — my maid thinks, — manly's more the word : He asked my leave to ' drop ' the elm-tree there, Some morning before breaktast. Gentleness Goes with the strength, of course. He's honest too, Limpidly truthful. For ability- - All's in the rough yet. His first taste of life Seems to have somehow gone against the tongue: He travelled, tried things — came back, tried still more — THE INN ALBUM. 85 He says he's sick of all. He's fond of me After a certain careless-earnest way I like : the iron's crude, — no polished steel Somebody forged before me. I am rich — That's not the reason, he's far richer : no, Nor is it that he thinks me pretty, — frank Undoubtedly on that point ! He saw once The pink of face-perfection — oh, not you — Content yourself, my beauty ! — for she proved So thoroughly a cheat, his charmer . . . nay, He runs into extremes, I'll say at once, Lest you say ! Well, I understand he wants. Someone to serve, something to do : and both Requisites so abound in me and mine That here's the obstacle which stops consent — The smoothness is too smooth, and I mistrust 86 THE INN ALBUM. The unseen cat beneath the counterpane. Therefore I thought — ' Would she but judge for me, Who, judging for herself, succeeded so /' Do I love him, does he love me, do both Mistake for knowledge — easy ignorance ? Appeal to the proficient in each art ! I got rough- smooth through a piano-piece, Rattled away last week till tutor came, Heard me to end, then grunted l Ach, mein Gottf Sagen Sie i easy ' ? Every note is wrong ! All thumped mit wrist — will trouble fingers now ! The Frdulein will please roll up Raff again And exercise at Czerny for one month ! ' Am I to roll up cousin, exercise At Trollope's novels for a month ? Pronounce ! " THE INN ALBUM. S7 " Now, place each in the right position first, Adviser and advised one ! I perhaps Am three — nay, four years older ; am, beside, A wife : advantages — to balance which, You have a full fresh joyous sense of life That finds you out life's fit food everywhere, Detects enjoyment where I, slow and dull, Fumble at fault. Already, these four years, Your merest glimpses at the world without Have shown you more than ever met my gaze ; And now, by joyance you inspire joy, — learn While you profess to teach, and teach, although Avowedly a learner. I am dazed Like any owl by sunshine which just sets The sparrow preening plumage ! Here's to spy — Your cousin ! You have scanned him all your life, S THE INN ALBUM, Little or much ; I never saw his face. You have determined on a marriage — used Deliberation therefore — I'll believe No otherwise, with opportunity For judgment so abounding ! Here stand I — Summoned to give my sentence, for a whim, (Well, at first cloud-fleck thrown athwart your blue) On what is Strangeness' self tome, — say \ Wed! 1 Or ' Wed not! ' whom you promise I shall judge Presently, at propitious lunch-time, just While he carves chicken ! Sends he leg for wing ? That revelation into character And conduct must suffice me ! Quite as well Consult with yonder solitary crow That eyes us from your elm-top ! " THE INN ALBUM. 89 " Still the same Do you remember, at the library We saw together somewhere, those two books Somebody said were notice-worthy? One Lay wide on table, sprawled its painted leaves For all the world's inspection ; shut on shelf Reclined the other volume, closed, clasped, locked — Clear to be let alone. Which page had we Preferred the turning over of? You were, Are, ever will be the locked lady, hold Inside you secrets written, — soul absorbed, My ink upon your blotting-paper. I — What trace of you have I to show in turn ? Delicate secrets ! No one juvenile Ever essayed at croquet and performed Superiorly but I confided you 9Q THE INN ALBUM. The sort of hat he wore and hair it held. While you ? One day a calm note comes by post — ' I am just married, you may like to hear? Most men would hate you, or they ought ; we love What we fear, — /do ! ' Cold' I shall expect My cousin calls you. I — dislike not him, But (if I comprehend what loving means) Love you immeasurably more — more — more Than even he who, loving you his wife, Would turn up nose at me impertinent, Frivolous, forward — love that excellence Of all the earth he bows in worship to ! And who's this paragon of privilege ? Simply a country parson : his the charm That worked the miracle ! Oh, too absurd — But that you stand before me as you stand ! THE INN ALBUM. 91 Such beauty does prove something, everything ! Beauty's the prize-flower which dispenses eye From peering into what has nourished root — Dew or manure : the plant best knows its place. Enough, from teaching youth and tending age And hearing sermons, — haply writing tracts, — From such strange love-besprinkled compost, lo, Out blows this triumph ! Therefore love's the soil Plants find or fail of. You, with wit to find, Exercise wit on the old friend's behalf, Keep me from failure ! Scan and scrutinize This cousin ! Surely he's as worth your pains To study as my elm -tree, crow and all, You still keep staring at ! I read your thoughts ! " " At last ? " 92 THE INN ALBUM. " At first ! ' Would, tree, a-top of thee I winged Were, like crow perched moveless there, And so could straightway soar, escape this bore, Back to my nest where broods whom I love best — The parson der his parish— garish — rarish — ' Oh I could bring the rhyme in if I tried : The Album here inspires me ! Quite apart From lyrical expression, have I read The stare aright, and sings not soul just so ? " " Or rather so ? ' Cool comfortable elm That men make coffins out of, — none for me At thy expense, so thou permit I glide Under thy ferny feet, and there sleep, sleep, Nor dread awaking though in heaven itself! \ ' ' THE INN ALBUM. 93 The younger looks with face struck sudden white. The elder answers its inquiry. "Dear, You are a guesser, not a 'clairvoyants* I'll so far open you the locked and shelved Volume, my soul, that you desire to see, As let you profit by the title-page — " "Paradise Lost?" " Inferno ! — All which comes Of tempting me to break my vow. Stop here ! Friend, whom I love the best in the whole world, Come at your call, be sure that I will do At your requirement — see and say my mind. 94 THE INN ALBUM. It may be that by sad apprenticeship I have a keener sense : I'll task the same. Only indulge me — here let sight and speech Happen— this Inn is neutral ground, you know ! I cannot visit the old house and home, Encounter the old sociality Abjured for ever. Peril quite enough In even this first — last, I pray it prove — Renunciation of my solitude ! Back, you, to house and cousin ! Leave me here, Who want no entertainment, carry still My occupation with me. While I watch The shadow inching round those ferny feet, Tell him ' A school-friend wants a word with me Up at the inn : time, tide and train won't wait : I must go see her — on and off again — THE INN ALBUM. 95 You'll keep me company ? ' Ten minutes' talk, With you in presence, ten more afterward With who, alone, convoys me station-bound, And I see clearly — to say honestly To-morrow : pen shall play tongue's part, you know ! Go — quick ! for I have made our hand-in-hand Return impossible. So scared you look, — If cousin does not greet you with ' What ghost Has crossed your path ? * I set him down obtuse." And after one more look, with face still white, The younger does go, while the elder stands Occupied by the elm at window there. 96 THE INN ALBUM. IV. Occupied by the elm \ and, as its shade Has crept clock-hand-wise till it ticks at fern Five inches further to the South, — the door Opens abruptly, someone enters sharp, The elder man returned to wait the youth — Never observes the room's new occupant, Throws hat on table, stoops quick, elbow-propped Over the Album wide there, bends down brow A cogitative minute, whistles shrill, Then, — with a cheery-hopeless laugh-and-lose Air of defiance to fate visibly THE INN ALBUM". 97 Casting the toils about him, — mouths once more ' If ail, calm acclivity, salubrious spot / ' Then clasps-to cover, sends book spinning off T'other side table, looks up, starts erect Full-face with her who, — roused from that abstruse Question ' Will next tick tip the fern or no ? ' — Fronts him as fully. All her languor breaks, Away withers at once the weariness From the black-blooded brow, anger and hate Convulse. Speech follows slowlier, but at last — " You here ! I felt, I knew it would befall ! Knew, by some subtle undivinable Trick of the trickster, I should, silly- sooth, H 9$ THE INN ALBUM. Late of soon, somehow be allured to leave Safe hiding and come take of him arrears, My torment due on four years' respite ! Time To pluck the bird's healed breast of down o'er wound ! Have your success ! Be satisfied this sole Seeing you has undone all heaven could do These four years, puts me back to you and hell ! What will next trick be, next success ? No doubt When I shall think to glide into the grave, There will you wait disguised as beckoning Death, And catch and capture me for evermore ! But, God, though I am nothing, be thou all ! Contest him for me ! Strive, for he is strong ! " Already his surprise dies palely out In laugh of acquiescing impotence. THE INN ALBUM. 99 He neither gasps nor hisses : calm and plain — " I also felt and knew — but otherwise ! You out of hand and sight and care of me These four years, whom I felt, knew, all the while . . . Oh, it's no superstition ! It's a gift O' the gamester that he snuffs the unseen powers Which help or harm him ! Well I knew what lurked, Lay perdue paralysing me, — drugged, drowsed And damnified my soul and body both ! Down and down, see where you have dragged me to, You and your malice ! I was, four years since, — Well, a poor creature ! I become a knave. I squandered my own pence : I plump my purse With other people's pounds. I practised play Because I liked it : play turns labour now h 2 X) THE INN ALBUM. Because there's profit also in the sport. I gamed with men of equal age and craft : I steal here with a boy as green as grass YVhom I have tightened hold on slow and sure This long while, just to bring about to-day When the boy beats me hollow, buries me In ruin who was sure to beggar him. O time indeed I should look up and laugh ' Surely she closes on me /' Here you stand ! " And stand she does : while volubility, With him, keeps on the increase, for his tongue After long locking-up is loosed for once. " Certain the taunt is happy ! " he resumes : " So, I it was allured you — only I THE INN ALBUM. 101 — I, and none other — to this spectacle — Your triumph, my despair — you woman-fiend That front me ! Well, I have my wish, then ! See The low wide brow oppressed by sweeps of hair Darker and darker as they coil and swathe The crowned corpse-wanness whence the eyes burn black Not asleep now ! not pin-points dwarfed beneath Either great bridging eyebrow — poor blank beads — Babies, I've pleased to pity in my time : How they protrude and glow immense with hate ! The long triumphant nose attains — retains Just the perfection ; and there's scarlet-skein My ancient enemy, her lip and lip, Sense-free, sense-frighting lips clenched cold and bold Because of chin, that based resolve beneath ! Then the columnar neck completes the whole )2 THE INN ALBUM. Greek-sculpture-baffling body ! Do I see ? Can I observe ? You wait next word to come ? Well, wait and want ! since no one blight I bid Consume one least perfection. Each and all, As they are rightly shocking now to me, So may they still continue ! Value them ? Ay, as the vendor knows the money- worth Of his Greek statue, fools aspire to buy, And he to see the back of ! Let us laugh ! You have absolved me from my sin at least ! You stand stout, strong, in the rude health of hate, No touch of the tame timid nullity My cowardice, forsooth, has practised on ! Ay, while you seemed to hint some fine fifth act Of tragedy should freeze blood, end the farce, I never doubted all was joke. I kept, THE INN ALBUM. 103 May be, an eye alert on paragraphs, Newspaper-notice, — let no inquest slip, Accident, disappearance : sound and safe Were you, my victim, not of mind to die ! So, my worst fancy that could spoil the smooth Of pillow, and arrest descent of sleep Was ' Into what dim hole can she have dived, She and her wrongs, her woe thafs wearing flesh And blood away ? ' Whereas, see, sorrow swells ! Or, fattened, fulsome, have you fed on me, Sucked out my substance ? How much gloss, I pray, O'erbloomed those hair-swathes when there crept from you To me that craze, else unaccountable, Which urged me to contest our county- seat With whom but my own brother's nominee ? 104 THE INN ALBUM. Did" that mouth's pulp glow ruby from carmine While I misused my moment, pushed, — one word,- One hair's breadth more of gesture, — idiot-like Past passion, floundered on to the grotesque, And lost the heiress in a grin ? At least, You made no such mistake ! You tickled fish, Landed your prize the true artistic way ! How did the smug young curate rise to tune Of ' 'Friend, a fatal fact divides us ! Love Suits me no longer ! I have suffered shame, Betrayal : past is past ; the future — yours — Shall never be contaminate by mine ! I might have spared me this confession, not — O, never by some hideous est of lies, Easy, impenetrable ! No ! but say, By just the quiet answer — ' / am cold. 7 THE INN ALBUM. 105 Falsehood avaunt, each shadow of thee, hence / Had happier fortune willed . . but dreams are vain ! Now, leave me — yes, for pity's sake ! } Aha, Who fails to see the curate as his face Reddened and whitened, wanted handkerchief At wrinkling brow and twinkling eye, until Out burst the proper ' Angel, whom the fiend Has thought to smirch, — thy whiteness, at one wipe Of holy cambric, shall disgrace the swan ! Mine be the task ' . . and so forth ! Fool ? not he ! Cunning in flavors, rather ! What but sour Suspected makes the sweetness doubly sweet ? And what stings love from faint to flamboyant But the fear-sprinkle ? Even horror helps — 1 Love" s flame in me by such recited wrong Drenched, quenched, indeed T It burns thefiercelier thence I ' io6 THE INN ALBUM. Why, I have known men never love their wives Till somebody — myself, suppose — had ' drenched A?id quenched love] so the blockheads whined : as u The fluid fire that lifts the torpid limb Were a wrong done to palsy. But I thrilled No palsied person : half my age, or less The curate was, I'll wager : o'er young blood Your beauty triumphed ! Eh, but — was it he ? Then, it was he, I heard of ! None beside ! How frank you were about the audacious boy Who fell upon you like a thunderbolt — Passion and protestation ! He it was Reserved in petto! Ay, and ' rich ' beside — ' Rich ' — how supremely did disdain curl nose ! All that I heard was — ' wedded to a priest; ' Informants sunk youth, riches and the rest. THE INN ALBUM. 107 And so my lawless love disparted loves, That loves might come together with a rush ! Surely this last achievement sucked me dry : Indeed, that way my wits went ! Mistress-queen, Be merciful and let your subject slink Into dark safety ! He's a beggar, see — Do not turn back his ship, Australia-bound, And bid her land him right amid some crowd Of creditors, assembled by your curse ! Don't cause the very rope to crack (you can !) Whereon he spends his last (friend's) sixpence, just The moment when he hoped to hang himself ! Be satisfied you beat him ! " She replies — 108 THE INN ALBUM. " Beat him ! I do. To all that you confess Of abject failure, I extend belief. Your very face confirms it : God is just ! Let my face — fix your eyes ! — in turn confirm What I shall say. All-abject 's but half truth j Add to all-abject knave as perfect fool ! So is it you probed human nature, so Prognosticated of me ? Lay these words To heart then, or where God meant heart should lurk ! That moment when you first revealed yourself, My simple impulse prompted— end forthwith The ruin of a life uprooted thus To surely perish ! How should such a tree Henceforward baulk the wind of its worst sport, Fail to go falling deeper, falling down From sin to sin until some depth were reached THE INN ALBUM, 109 Doomed to the weakest by the wickedest Of weak and wicked human kind ? But when, That self-display made absolute, — behold A new revealment ! — -round you pleased to veer, Propose me what should prompt annul the past, Make me ' amends by marriage ' — in your phrase, Incorporate me henceforth, body and soul, With soul and body which mere brushing past Brought leprosy upon me — ' marry ' these ! Why, then despair broke, re-assurance dawned, Clear-sighted was I that who hurled contempt As I — thank God ! — at the contemptible, Was scarce an utter weakling. Rent away By treason from my rightful pride of place, I was not destined to the shame below. A cleft had caught me : I might perish there, io THE INN ALBUM. But thence to be dislodged and whirled at last Where the black torrent sweeps the sewage — no ! * Bare breast be on hard rock] laughed out my soul In gratitude, ' howler rock's grip may grind! The plain, rough, wretched holdfast shall suffice This wreck of me ! y The wind, — I broke in bloom At passage of, — which stripped me bole and branch, Twisted me up and tossed me here, — turns back And, playful ever, would replant the spoil ? Be satisfied, not one least leaf that's mine Shall henceforth help wind's sport to exercise ! Rather I give such remnant to the rock Which never dreamed a straw would settle there. Rock may not thank me, may not feel my breast, Even : enough that /feel, hard and cold, Its safety my salvation. Safe and saved, THE INN ALBUM. u I lived, live. When the tempter shall persuade His prey to slip down, slide off, trust the wind, — Now that I know if God or Satan be Prince of the Power of the Air, — then, then, indeed, Let my life end and degradation too ! " " Good ! " he smiles, "true Lord Byron ! ' Tree and rock .•' ' Rock ' — there's advancement ! He's at first a youth, Rich, worthless therefore ; next he grows a priest : Youth, riches prove a notable resource, When to leave me for their possessor gluts Malice abundantly ; and now, last change, The young rich parson represents a rock — Bloodstone, no doubt. He's Evangelical? Your Ritualists prefer the Church for spouse ! " \2 THE INN ALBUM. She speaks. " I have a story to relate. There was a parish-priest, my father knew, Elderly, poor : I used to pity him Before I learned what woes are pity-worth. Elderly was grown old now, scanty means Were straitening fast to poverty, beside The ailments which await in such a case. Limited every way, a perfect man Within the bounds built up and up since birth Breast-high about him till the outside world Was blank save overhead one blue bit of sky — Faith : he had faith in dogma, small or great, As in the fact that if he clave his scull He'd find a brain there : such a fact who proves No falsehood by experiment at price Of soul and body ? The one rule of life THE INN ALBUM. 113 Delivered him in childhood was ' Obey ! Labour I ' He had obeyed and laboured — tame, True to the mill-track blinked on from above. Some scholarship he may have gained in youth : Gone — dropt or flung behind. Some blossom-flake, Spring's boon, descends on every vernal head, I used to think \ but January joins December, as his year had known no May Trouble its snow-deposit, — cold and old ! I heard it was his will to take a wife, A helpmate. Duty bade him tend and teach — How ? with experience null, nor sympathy Abundant, — while himself worked dogma dead, Who would play ministrant to sickness, age, Womankind, childhood ? These demand a wife. Supply the want, then ! theirs the wife ; for him — 1 U4 THE INN ALBUM. No coarsest sample of the proper sex But would have served his purpose equally With God's own angel, — let but knowledge match Her coarseness : zeal does only half the work. I saw this— knew the purblind honest drudge Was wearing out his simple blameless life, And wanted help beneath a burthen — borne To treasure-house or dust-heap, what cared I ? Partner he needed : I proposed myself, Nor much surprised him — duty was so clear ! Gratitude ? What for ? Gain of Paradise — Escape, perhaps, from the dire penalty Of who hides talent in a napkin ! No, His scruple was — should I be strong enough — In body? since of weakness in the mind, Weariness in the heart — what fear of these ? THE INN ALBUM. 115 He took me as these Arctic voyagers Take an aspirant to their toil and pain : Can he endure them ? — that's the point, and not — Will he ? Who would not, rather ! Whereupon, I pleaded far more earnestly for leave To give myself away, than you to gain What you called priceless till you gained the heart And soul and body ! which, as beggars serve Extorted alms, you straightway spat upon. Not so my husband, — for I gained my suit, And had my value put at once to proof. Ask him ! These four years I, have died away In village-life. The village ? Ugliness At best and filthiness at worst — inside. Outside, sterility — earth sown with salt Or what keeps even grass from growing fresh. n6 THE INN ALBUM, The life ? I teach the poor and learn, myself, That commonplace to such stupidity Is all-recondite. Being brutalized Their true need is brute-language, cheery grunts And kindly duckings, no articulate Nonsense that's elsewhere knowledge. Tend the sick, Sickened myself at pig-perversity, Ca.t-craft, dog- snarling, — may be, snapping ..." " Brief— You eat that root of bitterness called Man — Raw : I prefer it cooked, with social sauce ! So, he was not the rich youth after all ! Well, I mistook. But somewhere needs must be The compensation. If not young nor rich ..." THE INN ALBUM. 117 " You interrupt ! " " Because you've daubed enough Bistre for background. Play the artist now, Produce your figure well-relieved in front ! The contrast — do not I anticipate ? Though neither rich nor young — what then ? 'Tis all Forgotten, all this ignobility, In the dear home, the darling word, the smile, The something sweeter ..." " Yes, you interrupt. I have my purpose and proceed. Who lives With beasts assumes beast-nature, look and voice, And, much more, thought, — for beasts think. Selfishness In us met selfishness in them, deserved u8 THE INN ALBUM. Such answer as it gained. My husband, bent On saving his own soul by saving theirs, — They, bent on being saved if saving soul Included body's getting bread and cheese Somehow in life and somehow after death, — Both parties were alike in the same boat, One danger, therefore one equality. Safety induces culture : culture seeks To institute, extend and multiply The difference between safe man and man, Able to live alone now ; progress means What but abandonment of fellowship ? We were in common danger, still stuck close. No new books, — were the old ones mastered yet ? No pictures and no music : these divert — What from ? the staving danger off ! You paint THE INN ALBUM. 119 The waterspout above, you set to words The roaring of the tempest round you ? Thanks ! Amusement ? Talk at end of the tired day Of the more tiresome morrow ! I transcribed The page on page of sermon- sera wlings — stopped My intellectual eye to sense and sound — Vainly : the sound and sense would penetrate To brain and plague there in despite of me Maddened to know more moral good were done Had we two simply sallied forth and preached F the ' Green ' they call their grimy, — I with twang Of long-disused guitar, — with cut and slash Of much misvalued horsewhip he, — to bid The peaceable come dance, the peace-breaker Pay in his person ! Whereas — Heaven and Hell, Excite with that, restrain with this !— so dealt 120 THE INN ALBUM. His drugs my husband ; as he dosed himself, He drenched his cattle : and, for all my part Was just to dub the mortar, never fear fiut drugs, hand pestled at, have poisoned nose ! Heaven he let pass, left wisely undescribed : As applicable therefore to the sleep I want, that knows no waking — as to what's Conceived of as the proper prize to tempt Souls less world-weary : there, no fault to find ! But Hell he made explicit. After death, Life : man created new, ingeniously Perfect for a vindictive purpose now That man, first fashioned in beneficence, Was proved a failure ; intellect at length Replacing old obtuseness, memory Made mindful of delinquent's bygone deeds THE INN ALBUM. Now that remorse was vain, which life-long lay Dormant when lesson might be laid to heart ; New gift of observation up and down And round man's self, new power to apprehend Each necessary consequence of act In man for well or ill — things obsolete — Just granted to supplant the idiotcy Man's only guide while act was yet to choose, And ill or well momentously its fruit ; A faculty of immense suffering Conferred on mind and body, — mind, erewhile Unvisited by one compunctious dream During sin's drunken slumber, startled up, Stung through and through by sin's significance Now that the holy was abolished — just As body which, alive, broke down beneath 12 THE INN ALBUM. Knowledge, lay helpless in the path to good, Failed to accomplish aught legitimate, Achieve aught worthy, — which grew old in youth, And at its longest fell a cut-down flower, — Dying, this too revived by miracle To bear no end of burthen now that back Supported torture to no use at all, And live imperishably potent — since Life's potency was impotent to ward One plague off which made earth a hell before. This doctrine, which one healthy view of things, One sane sight of the general ordinance — Nature, — and its particular object, — man, — Which one mere eye-cast at the character Of Who made these and gave man sense to boot, Had dissipated once and evermore, — THE INN ALBUM. 123 This doctrine I have dosed our flock withal. Why? Because none believed it. They desire Such Heaven and dread such Hell, whom everyday The alehouse tempts from one, a dog-fight bids Defy the other ? All the harm is done Ourselves — done my poor husband who in youth Perhaps read Dickens, done myself who still Could play both Bach and Brahms. Such life I lead — Thanks to you, knave ! You learn its quality — Thanks to me, fool ! " He eyes her earnestly, But she continues. " — Life which, thanks once more To you, arch-knave as exquisitest fool, 124 THE INN ALBUM. I acquiescingly — I gratefully Take back again to heart ! and hence this speech Which yesterday had spared you. Four years long Life — I began to find intolerable, Only this moment. Ere your entry just, The leap of heart which answered, spite of me, A friend's first summons, first provocative Authoritative, nay, compulsive call To quit — though for a single day — my house Of bondage — made return seem horrible. I heard again a human lucid laugh All trust, no fear ; again saw earth pursue Its narrow busy way amid small cares, Smaller contentments, much weeds, some few flowers, - Never suspicious of a thunderbolt Avenging presently each daisy's death. THE INN ALBUM. I recognized the beech-tree, knew the thrush Repeated his old music-phrase, — all right, How wrong was T, then ! But your entry broke Illusion, bade me back to bounds at once. I honestly submit my soul : which sprang At love, and losing love lies signed and sealed 1 Failure? No love more? then, no beauty more Which tends to breed love ! Purify my powers, Effortless till some other world procure Some other chance of prize ! or, if none be, — Nor second world nor chance, — undesecrate Die then this aftergrowth of heart, surmised Where May's precipitation left June blank ! Better have failed in the high aim, as I, Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed As, God be thanked, I do not ! Ugliness 125 126 THE INN ALBUM. Had I called beauty, falsehood — truth, and you My lover ! No — this earth's unchanged for me, By his enchantment whom God made the Prince O' the Power o' the Air, into a Heaven : there is Heaven, since there is Heaven's simulation — earth ; I sit possessed in patience ; prison-roof Shall break one day and Heaven beam overhead ! " His smile is done with ; he speaks bitterly. " Take my congratulations, and permit I wish myself had proved as teachable ! — Or, no ! until you taught me, could I learn A lesson from experience ne'er till now Conceded ? Please you listen while I show How thoroughly you estimate my worth THE INN ALBUM. 127 And yours — the immeasurably superior ! I Believed at least in one thing, first to last, — Your love to me : I was the vile and you The precious ; I abused you, I betrayed, But doubted — never ! Why else go my way Judas-like plodding to this Potter's Field Where fate now finds me ? What has dinned my ear And dogged my step ? The spectre with the shriek 1 Such she was, such were you , whose punishment Is just ! ' And such she was not, all the while ! She never owned a love to outrage, faith To pay with falsehood ! For, myself know this — Love once and you love always. Why, it's down Here in the Album : every lover knows Love may use hate but — turn to hate, itself — Turn even to indifference — no, indeed ! 128 THE INN ALBUM. Well, I have been spell-bound, deluded like The witless negro by the Obeah-man Who bids him wither : so, his eye grows dim, His arm slack, arrow misses aim and spear Goes wandering wide, — and all the woe because He proved untrue to Fetish, who, he finds, Was just a feather-phantom ! T wronged love, Am ruined, - and there was no love to wrong ! " " No love ? Ah, dead love ! I invoke thy ghost To show the murderer where thy heart poured life At summons of the stroke he doubts was dealt On pasteboard and pretence ! Not love, my love ! I changed for you the very laws of life : Made you the standard of all right, all fair. No genius but you could have been, no sage, THE INN ALBUM. 129 No sufferer — which is grandest — for the truth ! My hero — where the heroic only hid To burst from hiding, brighten earth one day ! Age and decline were man's maturity \ Face, form were nature's type : more grace, more strength, What had they been but just superfluous gauds, Lawless divergence? I have danced through day On tiptoe at the music of a word, Have wondered where was darkness gone as night Burst out in stars at brilliance of a smile ! Lonely, I placed the chair to help me seat Your fancied presence ; in companionship, I kept my finger constant to your glove Glued to my breast \ then — where was all the world ? I schemed — not dreamed — how I might die some death K 130 THE INN ALBUM. Should save your finger aching ! Who creates Destroys, he only : I had laughed to scorn Whatever angel tried to shake my faith And make you seem unworthy : you yourself Only could do that ! With a touch 'twas done. ' Give me all, trust me wholly ! ' At the word, I did give, I did trust — and thereupon The touch did follow. Ah, the quiet smile, The masterfully folded arm in arm, As trick obtained its triumph one time more ! In turn, my soul too triumphs in defeat : Treason like faith moves mountains : love is gone ! ' He paces to and fro, stops, stands quite close And calls her by her name. Then — THE INN ALBUM. 131 "God forgives : Forgive you, delegate of God, brought near As never priests could bring him to this soul That prays you both — forgive me ! I abase-^ Know myself mad and monstrous utterly In all I did that moment ; but as God Gives me this knowledge — heart to feel and tongue To testify — so be you gracious too ! Judge no man by the solitary work Of — well, they do say and I can believe — The devil in him : his, the moment, — mine The life — your life ! " He names her name again. " You were just — merciful as just, you were K 2 132 THE INN ALBUM. In giving me no respite : punishment Followed offending. Sane and sound once more, The patient thanks decision, promptitude, Which flung him prone and fastened him from hurt Haply to others, surely to himself. I wake and would not you had spared one pang. All's well that ends well ! " Yet again her name. " Had you no fault ? Why must you change, forsoot Parts, why reverse positions, spoil the play ? Why did your nobleness look up to me, Not down on the ignoble thing confessed ? Was it your part to stoop, or lift the low ? Wherefore did God exalt you ? Who would teach THE INN ALBUM. 133 The brute man's tameness and intelligence Must never drop the dominating eye : Wink — and what wonder if the mad fit break, Followed by stripes and fasting ? Sound and sane, My life, chastised now, couches at your foot. Accept, redeem me ! Do your eyes ask ' How ? ' I stand here penniless, a beggar ; talk What idle trash I may, this final blow Of fortune fells me. / disburse, indeed, This boy his winnings ? when each bubble-scheme That danced athwart my brain, a minute since, The worse the better, — of repairing straight My misadventure by fresh enterprise, Capture of other boys in foolishness His fellows, — when these fancies fade away At first sight of the lost so long, the found 134 THE INN ALBUM. So late, the lady of my life, before Whose presence I, the lost, am also found Incapable of one least touch of mean Expedient, I who teemed with plot and wile — That family of snakes your eye bids flee ! Listen ! Our troublesomest dreams die off In daylight : I awake and dream is — where ? I rouse up from the past : one touch dispels England and all here. I secured long since A certain refuge, solitary home To hide in, should the head strike work one day, The hand forget its cunning, or perhaps Society grow savage, — there to end My life's remainder, which, say what fools will, Is or should be the best of life, — its fruit, All tends to, root and stem and leaf and flower. THE INN ALBUM- 135 Come with me, love, loved once, loved only, come, Blend loves there ! Let this parenthetic doubt Of love, in me, have been the trial test Appointed to all flesh at some one stage Of soul's achievement, — when the strong man doubts His strength, the good man whether goodness be, The artist in the dark 'seeks, fails to find Vocation, and the saint forswears his shrine. What if the lover may elude, no more Than these, probative dark, must search the sky Vainly for love, his soul's star ? But the orb Breaks from eclipse : I breathe again : I love ! Tempted, I fell \ but fallen — fallen lie Here at your feet, see ! Leave this poor pretence Of union with a nature and its needs Repugnant to your needs and nature ! Nay, 136 THE INN ALBUM. False, beyond falsity you reprehend In me, is such mock marriage with such mere Man-mask as — whom you witless wrong, beside, By that expenditure of heart and brain He recks no more of than would yonder tree If watered with your life-blood : rains and dews Answer its ends sufficiently, while me One drop saves — sends to flower and fruit at last The laggard virtue in the soul wh'ch else Cumbers the ground ! Quicken me ! Call me yours— Yours and the world's — yours and the world's anc God's ! Yes, for you can, you only ! Think ! Confirm Your instinct ! Say, a minute since, I seemed The castaway you count me, — all the more Apparent shall the angelic potency THE INN ALBUM. 137 Lift me from out perdition's deep of deeps To light and life and love ! — that's love for you — Love that already dares match might with yours. You loved one worthy, — in your estimate, — When time was j you descried the unworthy taint, And where was love then ? No such test could e'er Try my love : but you hate me and revile ; Hatred, revilement — had you these to bear, Would you, as I do, nor revile, nor hate, But simply love on, love the more, perchance ? Abide by your own proof ! ' Your love was love : Its ghost knows no forgetting /' Heart of mine, Would that I dared remember ! Too unwise Were he who lost a treasure, did himself Enlarge upon the sparkling catalogue Of gems to her his queen who trusted late 138 THE INN ALBUM. The keeper of her caskets ! Can it be That I, custodian of such relic still As your contempt permits me to retain, All I dare hug to breast is — ' How your glove Burst and displayed the long thin lily-streak ! ' What may have followed — that is forfeit now ! I hope the proud man has grown humble ! True- One grace of humbleness absents itself — Silence ! yet love lies deeper than all words, And not the spoken but the speechless love Waits answer ere I rise and go my way." Whereupon, yet one other time the name. To end she looks the large deliberate look, Even prolongs it somewhat ; then the soul THE INN ALBUM. 139 Bursts forth in a clear laugh that lengthens on, On, till — thinned, softened, silvered, one might say The bitter runnel hides itself in sand, Moistens the hard grey grimly comic speech. " Ay — give the baffled angler even yet His supreme triumph as he hales to shore A second time the fish once 'scaped from hook — So artfully has new bait hidden old Blood-imbrued iron ! Ay, no barb's beneath The gilded minnow here ! You bid break trust, This time, with who trusts me, — not simply bid Me trust you, me who ruined but myself, In trusting but myself ! Since, thanks to you, I know the feel of sin and shame, — be sure, I shall obey you and impose them both 140 THE INN ALBUM. On one who happens to be ignorant Although my husband — for the lure is love, Your love ! Try other tackle, fisher-friend ! Repentance, expiation, hopes and fears, What you had been, may yet be, would I but Prove helpmate to my hero — one and all These silks and worsteds round the hook, seduce Hardly the late torn throat and mangled tongue. Pack up, I pray, the whole assortment prompt ! Who wonders at variety of wile In the Arch-cheat ? You are the Adversary ! Your fate is of your choosing : have your choice ! Wander the world, — God has some end to serve, Ere he suppress you ! He waits : I endure, But interpose no finger-tip, forsooth, To stop your passage to the pit. Enough THE INN ALBUM. 141 That I am stable, uninvolved by you In the rush downwards : free I gaze and fixed ; Your smiles, your tears, prayers, curses move alike My crowned contempt. You kneel ? Prostrate yourself ! To earth, and would the whole world saw you there ! " Whereupon — " All right ! " carelessly begins Somebody from outside, who mounts the stair, And sends his voice for herald of approach : Half in half out the doorway as the door Gives way to push. " Old fellow, all's no good ! The train's your portion ! Lay the blame on me I'm no diplomatist, and Bismarck's self Had hardly braved the awful Aunt at broach 142 THE INN ALBUM. Of proposition — so has world-repute Preceded the illustrious stranger ! Ah ! — " Quick the voice changes to astonishment, Then horror, as the youth stops, sees, and knows. The man who knelt starts up from kneeling, stands Moving no muscle, and confronts the stare. The lady's proud pale queenliness of scorn Buries with one red outbreak throat and brow — Then her great eyes that turned so quick, become Intenser : quail at gaze, not they indeed ! THE INN ALBUM, 143 V. It is the young man shatters silence first. " Well, my lord — for indeed my lord you are, I little guessed how rightly — this last proof Of lordship-paramount confounds too much My simple head-piece ! Let's see how we stand Each to the other ! how we stood i' the game Of life an hour ago, — the magpies, stile And oak-tree witnessed. Truth exchanged for truth - My lord confessed his four-years- old affair — How he seduced and then forsook the girl 144 THE INN ALBUM. Who married somebody and left him sad. My pitiful experience was — I loved A girl whose gown's hem had I dared to touch My finger would have failed me, palsy-fixed \ She left me, sad enough, to marry — whom ? A better man, — then possibly not you ! How does the game stand ? Who is who and what Is what, o' the board now, since an hour went by ? My lord's ' seduced, forsaken, sacrificed ' — Starts up, my lord's familiar instrument, Associate and accomplice, mistress- slave — Shares his adventure, follows on the sly, — Ay, and since ' bag and baggage ' is a phrase — Baggage lay hid in carpet-bag belike, Was but unpadlocked when occasion came For holding council, since my back was turned, THE INN ALBUM. 145 On how invent ten thousand pounds which, paid, Would lure the winner to lose twenty more, Beside refunding these ! Why else allow The fool to gain them ? So displays herself The lady whom my heart believed — oh, laugh ! Noble and pure : whom my heart loved at once, And who at once did speak truth when she said 1 1 am not mine now but another's ' — thus Being that other's ! Devil's-marriage, eh ? \ My lie weds thine till lucre us do part ? ' But pity me the snobbish simpleton, You two aristocratic tip-top swells At swindling ! Quits, I cry ! Decamp content With skin I'm peeled of : do not strip bones bare — As that you could, I have no doubt at all ! O you two rare ones ! Male and female, Sir ! L 146 THE INN ALBUM. The male there smirked, this morning, ' Come, my boy — Out with it ! You've been crossed in love, I think : I recognize the lover's hangdog look ; Make a clean breast and match my confidence, For, Fll be frank, I too have had my fling, Am punished for my fault, and smart enough ! Where now the victim hides her head, God knows ! * Here loomed her head, life-large, the devil knew ! Look out, Salvini ! Here's your man, your match ! He and I sat applauding, stall by stall, Last Monday — ( Here's Othello ' was our word, ■ But where's Iago ? ' Where ? Why, there ! And nov The fellow-artist, female specimen — Oh, lady, you must needs describe yourself ! He's grea in art, but you — how greater still — (If I can rightly, out of all I learned, THE INN ALBUM. 147 Apply one bit of Latin that assures 1 Art means just arfs concealment ') — tower yourself ! For he stands plainly visible henceforth — Liar and scamp : while you, in artistry Prove so consummate — or I prove perhaps So absolute an ass — that — either way — You still do seem to me who worshipped you , And see you take the homage of this man, Your master, who played slave and knelt, no doubt, Before a mistress in his very craft . . . Well, take the fact, I nor believe my eyes, Nor trust my understanding ! Still you seem Noble and pure as when we had the talk Under the tower, beneath the trees, that day. And there's the key explains the secret : down He knelt to ask your leave to rise a grade 148 THE INN ALBUM. F the mystery of humbug : well he may ! For how you beat him ! Half an hour ago, I held your master for my best of friends ; And now I hate him ! Four years since, you seemed My heart's one love : well, and you so remain ! What's he to you in craft ? " She looks him through. " My friend, 'tis just that friendship have its turn — Interrogate thus me whom one, of foes The worst, has questioned and is answered by. Take you as frank an answer ! answers both Begin alike so far, divergent soon World-wide — I own superiority Over you, over him. As him I searched, THE INN ALBUM, 149 So do you stand seen through and through by me Who, this time, proud, report your crystal shrines A dewdrop, plain as amber prisons round A spider in the hollow heart his house ! Nowise are you that thing my fancy feared When out you stepped on me, a minute since, — This man's confederate ! no, you step not thus Obsequiously at beck and call to help At need some second scheme, and supplement Guile by force, use my shame to pinion me From struggle and escape ! I fancied that ! Forgive me ! Only by strange chance, — most strange In even this strange world, — you enter now, Obtain your knowledge. Me you have not wronged Who never wronged you — least of all, my friend, That day beneath the College tower and trees, 150 THE INN ALBUM. When I refused to say, — \ not friend but, love!' Had I been found as free as air when first We met, I scarcely could have loved you. No — For where was that in you which claimed return Of love ? My eyes were all too weak to probe This other's seeming, but that seeming loved The soul in me, and lied — I know too late ! While your truth was truth : and I knew at once My power was just my beauty — bear the word — As I must bear, of all my qualities, To name the poorest one that serves my soul And simulates myself! So rcuch in me You loved, I know : the something that's beneath Heard not your call, — uncalled, no answer comes ! For, since in every love, or soon or late Soul must awake and seek out soul for soul, THE INN ALBUM. 151 Yours, overlooking mine then, would, some day, Take flight to find some other ; so it proved — Missing me, you were ready for this man. I apprehend the whole relation : his — The soul wherein you saw your type of worth At once, true object of your tribute. Well Might I refuse such half-heart's homage ! Love Divining, had assured you I no more Stand his participant in infamy Than you — I need no love to recognize As simply dupe and nowise fellow-cheat ! Therefore accept one last friend's- word, — your friend's, All men's friend, save a felon's, Ravel out The bad embroilment howsoe'er you may, Distribute as it please you praise or blame To me — so you but fling this mockery far — 152 THE INN ALBUM, Renounce this rag-and-feather hero-sham, This poodle dipt to pattern, lion-like ! Throw him his thousands back, and lay to heart The lesson I was sent, — if man discerned Ever God's message, — just to teach. I judge — Far to another issue than could dream Your cousin, — younger, fairer, as befits — Who summoned me to judgment's exercise. I find you, save in folly, innocent. And in my verdict lies your fate ; at choice Of mine your cousin takes or leaves you. i Take ! ' I bid her — for you tremble back to truth ! She turns the scale, — one touch of the pure hand Shall so press down, emprison past relapse Farther vibration twixt veracity — That's honest solid earth — and falsehood, theft THE INN ALBUM. 153 And air, that's one illusive emptiness ! That reptile capture you ? I conquered him : You saw him cower before me ! Have no fear He shall offend you farther ! Spare to spurn — Safe let him slink hence till some subtler Eve Than I, anticipate the snake — bruise head Ere he bruise heel — or, warier than the first, Some Adam purge earth's garden of its pest Before the slaver spoil the Tree of Life ! " You ! Leave this youth, as he leaves you, as I Leave each ! There's caution surely extant yet Though conscience in you were too vain a claim. Hence quickly ! Keep the cash but leave unsoiled The heart I rescue and would lay to heal Beside another's ! Never let her know 154 THE INN ALBUM. How near came taint of your companionship ! " " Ah " — draws a long breath with a new strange look The man she interpellates — soul a- stir Under its covert, as, beneath the dust, A coppery sparkle all at once denotes The hid snake has conceived a purpose. " Ah— Innocence should be crowned with ignorance ? Desirable indeed, but difficult ! As if yourself, now, had not glorified Your helpmate by imparting him a hint Of how a monster made the victim bleed Ere crook and courage saved her — hint, I say, — Not the whole horror, — that were needless risk, — THE INN ALBUM. 155 But just such inkling, fancy of the fact, As should suffice to qualify henceforth The shepherd, when another lamb would stray, For warning ' Ware the wolf P No doubt at all, Silence is generosity, — keeps wolf Unhunted by flock's warder ! Excellent, Did — generous to me, mean — just to him ! But, screening the deceiver, lamb were found Outraging the deceitless ! So, — he knows ! And yet. unharmed I breathe — perchance, repent — • Thanks to the mercifully-politic ! " " Ignorance is not innocence but sin — Witness your own ignoring after-pangs Pursue the plague-infected. Merciful Am I ? Perhaps ! the more contempt, the less 156 THE INN ALBUM. Hatred ; and who so worthy of contempt As you that rest assured I cooled the spot I could not cure, by poisoning, forsooth, Whose hand I pressed there ? Understand for once That, sick, of all the pains corroding me This burnt the last and nowise least — the need Of simulating soundness. I resolved — No matter how the struggle tasked weak flesh — To hide the truth away as in a grave From — most of all — my husband : he nor knows Nor ever shall be made to know your part, My part, the devil's part, — I trust, God's part In the foul matter. Saved, I yearn to save And not destroy : and what destruction like The abolishing of faith in him, that's faith In me as pure and true ? Acquaint some child THE INN ALBUM. 157 Who takes yon tree into his confidence, That, where he sleeps now, was a murder done, And that the grass which grows so thick, he thinks, Only to pillow him is product just Of what lies festering beneath ! Tis God Must bear such secrets and disclose them. Man ? The miserable thing I have become By dread acquaintance with my secret — you — That thing had he become by learning me — The miserable, whom his ignorance Would wrongly call the wicked : ignorance Being, I hold, sin ever, small or great. No, he knows nothing ! " " He and I alike Are bound to you for such discreetness, then. 158 THE INN ALBUM. What if our talk should terminate awhile ? Here is a gentleman to satisfy, Settle accounts with, pay ten thousand pounds Before we part — as, by his face, I fear, Results from your appearance on the scene. Grant me a minute's parley with my friend Which scarce admits of a third personage ! The room from which you made your entry first So opportunely — still untenanted — What if you please return there ? Just a word To my young friend first — then, a word to you, And you depart to fan away each fly From who, grass-pillowed, sleeps so sound at home ! " " So the old truth comes back ! A wholesome change, — THE INN ALBUM. 159 At last the altered eye, the rightful tone ! But even to the truth that drops disguise And stands forth grinning malice which but now Whined so contritely — I refuse assent Just as to malice. I, once gone, come back ? No, my lord ! I enjoy the privilege Of being absolutely loosed from you Too much — the knowledge that your power is null Which was omnipotent. A word of mouth, A wink of eye would have detained me once, Body and soul your slave ; and now, thank God, Your fawningest of prayers, your frightfulest Of curses — neither would avail to turn My footstep for a moment ! " " Prayer, then, tries 160 THE INN ALBUM. No such adventure. Let us cast about For something novel in expedient : take Command, — what say you ? I profess myself One fertile in resource. Commanding, then, I bid — not only wait there, but return Here, where I want you ! Disobey and — good ! On your own head the peril ! " " Come ! M breaks in The boy with his good glowing face. " Shut up ! None of this sort of thing while I stand here — Not to stand that ! No bullying, I beg ! I also am to leave you presently And never more set eyes upon your face — You won't mind that much ; but — I tell you frank — I do mind having to remember this THE INN ALBUM. 161 For your last word and deed — my friend who were ! Bully a woman you have ruined, eh ? Do you know, — I give credit all at once To all those stories everybody told And nobody but I would disbelieve : They all seem likely now, — nay, certain, sure ! I daresay you did cheat at cards that night The row was at the Club : ' sauter la coupe ' — That was your l cut,' for which your friends ' cut ' you While I, the booby, ' cut ' — acquaintanceship With who so much as laughed when I said ' luck ! ' I daresay you had bets against the horse They doctored at the Derby ; little doubt, That fellow with the sister found you shirk His challenge and did kick you like a ball, Just as the story went about ! Enough : M 1 62 THE INN ALBUM. It only serves to show how well advised, Madam, you were in bidding such a fool As 1, go hang. You see how the mere sight And sound of you suffice to tumble down Conviction topsy-turvy : no, — that's false, — There's no unknowing what one knows ; and yet Such is my folly that, in gratitude For . . . well, I'm stupid ; but you seemed to wish I should know gently what I know, should slip Softly from old to new, not break my neck Between beliefs of what you were and are. Well then, for just the sake of such a wish To cut no worse a figure than needs must In even eyes like mine, I'd sacrifice Body and soul ! But don't think danger — pray ! — Menaces either ! He do harm to us ? THE INN ALBUM. 163 Let me say " us " this one time ! You'd allow I lent perhaps my hand to rid your ear Of some cur's yelping — hand that's fortified, Into the bargain, with a horsewhip? Oh, One crack and you shall see how curs decamp ! My lord, you know your losses and my gains. Pay me my money at the proper time ! If cash be not forthcoming, — well, yourself Have taught me, and tried often, I'll engage, The proper course : I post you at the Club, Pillory the defaulter. Crack, to-day, Shall, slash, to-morrow, slice through flesh and bone ! There, Madam, you need mind no cur, I think ! " " Ah, what a gain to have an apt no less Than grateful scholar i Nay, lie brings to mind m 2 164 THE INN ALBUM. My knowledge till he puts me to the blush, So long has it lain rusty ! Post my name ! That were indeed a wheal from whipcord ! Whew ! I wonder now if I could rummage out — Just to match weapons — some old scorpion-scourge Madam, you hear my pupil, may applaud His triumph o'er the master. I — no more Bully, since I'm forbidden : but entreat — Wait and return — for my sake, no ! but just To save your own defender, should he chance Get thwacked thro' awkward flourish of his thong. And what if — since all waiting's weary work — I help the time pass 'twixt your exit now And entry then? for — pastime proper — here's The very thing, the Alburn, verse and prose To make the laughing minutes launch away ! THE INN ALBUM. 165 Each of us must contribute. I'll begin — 1 Hail calm acclivity r , salubrious spot / ' I'm confident I beat the bard, — for why ? My young friend owns me an Iago— him Confessed, among the other qualities, A ready rhymer. Oh, he rhymed ! Here goes ! — Something to end with ' horsewhip ! 9 No, that rhyme Beats me ; there's 'cowslip? ' boltsprit] nothing else ! So, Tennyson take my benison,— -verse for bard, Prose suits the gambler's book best ! Dared and done ! ' Wherewith he dips pen, writes a line or two, Closes and clasps the cover, gives the book, Bowing the while, to her who hesitates, Turns half away, turns round again, at last Takes it as you touch carrion, then retires. r . r he door shuts fast the couple. 1 66 THE INN ALBUM. VI. With a change Of his whole manner, opens out at once The Adversary. " Now, my friend, for you ! You who, protected late, aggressive grown, Brandish, it seems, a weapon I must 'ware ! Plain speech in me becomes respectable Therefore, because courageous ; plainly, then — (Have lash well loose, hold handle tight and light !) Throughout my life's experience, you indulged THE INN ALBUM. 167 Yourself and friend by passing in review So courteously but now, I vainly search To find one record of a specimen So perfect of the pure and simple fool As this you furnish me. Ingratitude I lump with folly, — all's one lot, — so — fool ! Did I seek you or you seek me ? Seek ? sneak For service to, and service you would style — And did style — godlike, scarce an hour ago ! Fool, there again, yet not precisely there First-rate in folly : since the hand you kissed Did pick you from the kennel, did plant firm Your footstep on the pathway, did persuade Your awkward shamble to true gait and pace, Fit for the world you walk in. Once a-strut On that firm pavement which your cowardice 1 68 THE INN ALBUM. Was for renouncing as a pitfall, next Came need to clear your brains of their conceit They cleverly could distinguish who was who, Whatever folk might tramp the thoroughfare. Men, now — familiarly you read them off, Each phyz at first sight ! O you had an eye ! Who couched it ? made you disappoint each fox Eager to strip my gosling of his fluff So golden as he cackled ' Goose trusts lamb ? ' ' Ay, but I saved you — wolf defeated fox — Wanting to pick your bones myself V then, wolf Has got the worst of it with goose for once. I, penniless, pay you ten thousand pounds ( — No gesture, pray ! I pay ere I depart !) And how you turn advantage to account Here's the example ! Have I proved so wrong THE INN ALBUM. 169 In my peremptory ' debt must be discharged ? ' you laughed lovelily, were loth to leave The old friend out at elbows — pooh, a thing Not to be thought of ! I must keep my cash, And you forget your generosity ! Ha ha, I took your measure when I laughed My laugh to that ! First quarrel — nay, first faint Pretence at taking umbrage — ' Down with debt, Both interest and principal ! — The Club, Exposure and expulsion ! — stamp me out ! * That's the magnanimous magnificent Renunciation of advantage ! Well, But whence and why did you take umbrage, Sir ? Because your master, having made you know Somewhat of men, was minded to advance, Expound you women, still a mystery ! 170 THE INN ALBUM. My pupil pottered with a cloud on brow, A clod in breast : had loved, and vainly loved : Whence blight and blackness, just for all the world As Byron used to teach us boys. Thought I — ' Quick rid him of that rubbish ! Clear the cloudy And set the heart a-pulsing /' — heart, this time : 'Twas nothing but the head I doctored late For ignorance of Man ; now heart's to dose, Palsied by over-palpitation due To Woman -worship — so, to work at once On first avowal of the patient's ache ! This morning you described your malady, — How you dared love a piece of virtue — lost To reason, as the upshot showed : for scorn Fitly repaid your stupid arrogance ; And, parting, you went two ways, she resumed THE INN ALBUM. 171 Her path — perfection, while forlorn you paced The world that's made for beasts like you and me. My remedy was — tell the fool the truth ! Your paragon of purity had plumped Into these arms at their first outspread — ' fallen My victim] she prefers to turn the phrase — And, in exchange for that frank confidence, Asked for my whole life present and to come — Marriage : a thing un covenanted for ! Never so much as put in question ! Life — Implied by marriage — throw that trifle in And round the bargain off, no otherwise Than if, when we played cards, because you won My money you should also want my head ! That, I demurred to : we but played 'for love ' — She won my love ; had she proposed for stakes 172 THE INN ALBUM. 1 Marriage] — why, that's for whist, a wiser game. Whereat she raved at me, as losers will, And went her way. So far the story's known, The remedy's applied, no farther — which Here's the sick man's first honorarium for — Posting his medicine-monger at the Club ! That being, Sir, the whole you mean my fee — In gratitude for such munificence I'm bound in common honesty to spare No droplet of the draught : so, — pinch your nose, Pull no wry faces ! — drain it to the dregs ! I say ' She went off* — ' went off] you subjoin, 1 Since not to wedded bliss, as I supposed, Sure to some convent : solitude and peace Help her to hide the shame from mortal view, With prayer and fasting' No, my sapient Sir ! THE INN ALBUM. 173 Far wiselier, straightway she betook herself To a prize-portent from the donkey-show Of leathern long-ears that compete for palm In clerical absurdity : since he, Good ass, nor practises the shaving-trick, The candle-crotchet, nonsense which repays When you've young ladies congregant, — but schools The poor, — toils, moils and grinds the mill nor means To stop and munch one thistle in this life Till next life smother him with roses : just The parson for her purpose ! Him she stroked Over the muzzle ; into mouth with bit, And on to back with saddle, — there he stood, The serviceable beast who heard, believed And meekly bowed him to the burden, — borne Off in a canter to seclusion — ay, 174 THE INN ALBUM. The lady's lost ! But had a friend of mine — While friend he was — imparted his sad case To sympathizing counsellor, full soon One cloud at least had vanished from his brow. ' Don 7 fear /' had followed reassuringly — ' The lost will in due time turn up again, Probably just when, weary of the world, You think of nothing less than settling- down To country life and golden days, beside A dearest best and brightest virtuousest Wife: who needs no more hope to hold her own Against the naughty -and-repent ant — no, Than water-gruel against Roman punch / ' And as I prophesied, it proves ! My youth, — Just at the happy moment when, subdued To spooniness, he finds that youth fleets fast, THE INN ALBUM. 175 That town-life tires, that men should drop boy's- play, That property, position have, no doubt, Their exigency with their privilege, And if the wealthy wed with wealth, how dire The double duty ! — in, behold, there beams Our long- lost lady, form and face complete ! And where's my moralizing pupil now, Had not his master missed a train by chance ? But, by your side instead of whirled away, How have I spoiled scene, stopped catastrophe, Struck flat the stage- effect I know by heart ! Sudden and strange the meeting — improvised ? Bless you, the last event she hoped or dreamed ! But rude sharp stroke will crush out fire from flint — Assuredly from flesh. ' y TU you f ' ' Myself 1 • i/6 THE INN ALBUM. 1 Changed ? ' ' Changeless ! ' ' Theft, what's earth t me V l To me Whafs heaven V 'So,— thine ! ' ' And thine I ' c An, likewise mine /' Had laughed ' Amen ' the devil, but for me Whose intermeddling hinders this hot haste, And bids you, ere concluding contract, pause — Ponder one lesson more, then sign and seal At leisure and at pleasure, — lesson's price Being, if you have skill to estimate, — How say you ? — I'm discharged my debt in full ! Since paid you stand, to farthing uttermost, Unless I fare like that black majesty A friend of mine had visit from last Spring. Coasting along the Cape-side, he's becalmed Off an uncharted bay, a novel town THE INN ALBUM, 177 Untouched at by the trader : here's a chance ! Out paddles straight the king in his canoe, Comes over bulwark, says he means to buy Ship's cargo — being rich and having brought A treasure ample for the purpose. See ! Four dragons, stalwart blackies, guard the same Wrapped round and round : its hulls, a multitude, — Palm-leaf and cocoa-mat and goat's-hair cloth All duly braced about with bark and board, — Suggest how brave, 'neath coat, must kernel be ! At length the peeling is accomplished, plain The casket opens out its core, and lo — A bran-new British silver sixpence — bid That's ample for the Bank, — thinks majesty ! You are the Captain ; call my sixpence cracked Or copper ; ' what I've said is calumny ; N 178 THE INN ALBUM. The lady's spotless /' Then, I'll prove my words, Or make you prove them true as truth — yourself, Here, on the instant ! I'll not mince my speech, Things at this issue. When she enters, then, Make love to her ! No talk of marriage now — The point-blank bare proposal ! Pick no phrase — Prevent all misconception ! Soon you'll see How different the tactics when she deals With an instructed man, no longer boy Who blushes like a booby. W T oman's wit ! Because you have instruction, blush no more ! Such your five minutes' profit by my pains, Tis simply now — demand and be possessed ! Which means — you may possess — may strip the tree Of fruit desirable to make one wise ! More I nor wish nor want : your act's your act, THE INN ALBUM. 179 My teaching is but — there's the fruit to pluck Or let alone at pleasure. Next advance In knowledge were beyond you ! Don't expect I bid a novice— pluck, suck, send sky-high Such fruit, once taught that neither crab nor sloe Falls readier prey to who but robs a hedge, Than this gold apple to my Hercules. Were you no novice but proficient— then, Then, truly, I might prompt you — Touch and taste, Try flavour and be tired as soon as I ! Toss on the prize to greedy mouths agape, Betake yours, sobered as the satiate grow, To wise man's solid meal of house and land, Consols and cousin ! but my boy, my boy, Such lore's above you ! Here's the lady back ! So, Madam, you have conned the Album-page 180 THE INN ALBUM. And come to thank its last contributor ? How kind and condescending ! I retire A moment, lest I spoil the interview, And mar my own endeavour to make friends — You with him, him with you, and both with me ! If I succeed — permit me to inquire Five minutes hence ! Friends bid good-bye, yo 1 know. * And out he goes. THE INN ALBUM. 181 VII. She, face, form, bearing, one Superb composure — " He has told you all ? Yes, he has told you all, your silence says — What gives him, as he thinks the mastery Over my body and my soul ! — has told That instance, even, of their servitude He now exacts of me ? A silent blush ! That's well, though better would white ignorance Beseem your brow, undesecrate before — 182 THE INN ALBUM. Ay, when I left you ! I too learn at last — Hideously learned as I seemed so late — What sin may swell to. Yes, — I needed learn That, when my prophet's rod became the snake I fled from, it would, one day, swallow up — Incorporate whatever serpentine Falsehood and treason and unmanliness Beslime earth's pavement : such the power of Hell. And so beginning, ends no otherwise The Adversary ! I was ignorant, Blameworthy — if you will ; but blame I take Nowise upon me as I ask myself — You — how can you, whose soul I seemed to read The limpid eyes through, have declined so deep Even with him for consort ? I revolve Much memory, pry into the looks and words THE INN ALBUM. 183 Of that day's walk beneath the College wall, And nowhere can distinguish, in what gleams Only pure marble through my dusky past, A dubious cranny where such poison- seed Might harbour, nourish what should yield to-day This dread ingredient for the cup I drink. Did not I recognize and honour truth In seeming ? — take your truth and for return, Give you my truth, a no less precious gift ? You loved me : I believed you. I replied — How could I other ? ^ I was not my own,' — No longer had the eyes to see, the ears To hear, the mind to judge, since heart and soul Now were another's. My own right in me, For well or ill, consigned away — my face Fronted the honest path, deflection whence 1 84 THE INN ALBUM. Had shamed me in the furtive backward look At the late bargain — fit such chapman's phrase ! — As though — less hasty and more provident — Waiting had brought advantage. Not for me, The chapman's chance! Yet while thus much wa true, I spared you — as I knew you then — one more Concluding word which, truth no less, seemed best Buried away for ever. Take it now Its power to pain is past ! Four years — that day — Those limes that make the College avenue ! I would that — friend and foe — by miracle, I had, that moment, seen into the heart Of either, as I now am taught to see ! I do believe I should have straight assumed My proper function, and sustained a soul, THE INN ALBUM. 185 — Not aimed at being just sustained myself By some man's soul — the weaker woman's-want ! So had I missed the momentary thrill Of finding me in presence of a god, But gained the god's own feeling when he gives Such thrill to what turns life from death before. 1 Gods many and Lords many,' says the Book : You would have yielded up your soul to me — Not to the false god who has burned its clay In his own image. I had shed my love Like Spring dew on the clod all flowery thence, Not sent up a wild vapour to the sun That drinks and then disperses. Both of us Blameworthy, — I first meet my punishment — And not so hard to bear. I breathe again ! Forth from those arms' enwinding leprosy 1 86 THE INN ALBUM. At last I struggle — uncontaminate : Why must I leave you pressing to the breast That's all one plague-spot ? Did you love me once ? Then take love's last and best return ! I think, Womanliness means only motherhood ; All love begins and ends there, — roams enough, But, having run the circle, rests at home. Why is your expiation yet to make ? Pull shame with your own hands from your own head Now, — never wait the slow envelopment Submitted to by unelastic age ! One fierce throe frees the sapling : flake on flake Lull till they leave the oak snow-stupified. Your heart retains its vital warmth — or why That blushing reassurance ? Blush, young blood ! Break from beneath this icy premature THE INN ALBUM. 187 Captivity of wickedness — I warn Back, in God's name ! No fresh encroachment here ! This May breaks all to bud — no winter now 1 Friend, we are both forgiven ! Sin no more S I am past sin now, so shall you become ! Meanwhile I testify that, lying once, My foe lied ever, most lied last of all. He, waking, whispered to your sense asleep The wicked counsel, — and assent might seem ; But, roused, your healthy indignation breaks The idle dream-pact. You would die — not dare Confirm your dream-resolve, — nay, find the word That fits the deed to bear the light of day ! Say I have justly judged you ! then farewell To blushing — nay, it ends in smiles, not tears ! Why tears now ? I have justly judged, thank God ! " 1 88 THE INN ALBUM. He does blush boy-like, but the man speaks out, — Makes the due effort to surmount himself. " I don't know what he wrote — how should I ? Noi How he could read my purpose which, it seems, He chose to somehow write — mistakenly Or else for mischief's sake. I scarce believe My purpose put before you fair and plain Would need annoy so much ; but there's my luck — From first to last I blunder. Still, one more Turn at the target, try to speak my thought ! Since he could guess my purpose, won't you read Right what he set down wrong ? He said — let's thin Ay, so ! — he did begin by telling heaps Of tales about you. Now, you see — suppose Anyone told me — my own mother died THE INN ALBUM, i89 Before I knew her — told me — to his cost ! — Such tales about my own dead mother : why, You would not wonder surely if I knew, By nothing but my own heart's help, he lied, Would you ? No reason's wanted in the case. So with you ! In they burnt on me, his tales, Much as when madhouse-inmates crowd around, Make captive any visitor and scream All sorts of stories of their keeper — he's Both dwarf and giant, vulture, wolf, dog, cat, Serpent and scorpion, yet man all the same ; Sane people soon see through the gibberish ! I just made out, you somehow lived somewhere A life of shame — I can't distinguish more — Married or single — how, don't matter much : Shame which himself had caused — that point was clear, i 9 o THE INN ALBUM. That fact confessed — that thing to hold and keep. Oh, and he added some absurdity — That you were here to make me — ha, ha, ha ! — Still love you, still of mind to die for you, Ha, ha — as if that needed mighty pains ! Now, foolish as . . . but never mind myself — What I am, what I am not, in the eye Of the world, is what I never cared for mucn. Fool then or no fool, not one single word In the whole string of lies did I believe, But this — this only — if I choke, who minds ? — I believe somehow in your purity Perfect as ever ! Else what use is God ? He is God, and work miracles He can ! Then, what shall I do ? Quite as clear, my course ! They've got a thing they call their Labyrinth THE INN ALBUM. 191 F the garden yonder : and my cousin played A pretty trick once, led and lost me deep Inside the briery maze of hedge round hedge ; And there might I be staying now, stock-still, But that I laughing bade eyes follow nose And so straight pushed my path through let and stop And soon was out in the open, face all scratched, But well behind my back the prison-bars In sorry plight enough, I promise you ! So here : I won my way to truth through lies — Said, as I saw light, — if her shame be shame I'll rescue and redeem her, — shame's no shame ? Then, 111 avenge, protect — redeem myself The stupidest of sinners ! Here I stand ! Dear, — let me once dare call you so, — you said Thus ought you to have done, four years ago, 192 THE INN ALBUM. Such things and such ! Ay, dear, and what ought I ? You were revealed to me : where's gratitude, Where's memory even, where the gain of you Discernible in my low after-life Of fancied consolation ? why, no horse Once fed on corn, will, missing corn, go munch Mere thistles like a donkey ! I missed you, And in your place found — him, made him my love, Ay, did I, — by this token, that he taught So much beast-nature that I meant , . . God knows Whether I bow me to the dust enough ! . . . To marry — yes, my cousin here ! I hope That was a master-stroke ! Take heart of hers, And give her hand of mine with no more heart Than now you see upon this brow I strike ! What atom of a heart do I retain THE INN ALBUM. 193 Not all yours ? Dear, you know it ! Easily May she accord me pardon when I place My brow beneath her foot, if foot so deign, Since uttermost indignity is spared — Mere marriage and no love ! And all this time Not one word to the purpose ! Are you free ? Only wait ! only let me serve — deserve Where you appoint and how you see the good ! I have the will — perhaps the power — at least Means that have power against the world. For time — Take my whole life for your experiment ! If you are bound — in marriage, say — why, still, Still, sure, there's something for a friend to do, Outside ? A mere well-wisher, understand ! I'll sit, my life long, at your gate, you know, Swing it wide open to let you and him o 194 THE INN ALBUM. Pass freely, — and you need not look, much less Fling me a ' Thank you — are you there, old friend? 1 Don't say that even : I should drop like shot ! So I feel now at least : some day, who knows ? After no end of weeks and months and years You might smile ' I believe you did your best f 1 And that shall make my heart leap — leap such leap As lands the feet in Heaven to wait you there ! Ah, there's just one thing more ! How pale you look ! Why ? Are you angry ? If there's, after all, Worst come to worst — if still there somehow be The shame — I said was no shame, — none, I swear ! — In that case, if my hand and what it holds, — My name, — might be your safeguard now — at once — Why, here's the hand — you have the heart ! Of course- No cheat, no binding you, because I'm bound, THE INN ALBUM, 195 To let me off probation by one day, Week, month, year, lifetime ! Prove as you propose ! Here's the hand with the name to take or leave ! That's all — and no great piece of news, I hope ! " " Give me the hand, then ! " she cries hastily. " Quick, now ! I hear his footstep ! " Hand in hand The couple face him as he enters, stops Short, stands surprised a moment, laughs away Surprise, resumes the much-experienced man. " So, you accept him ? n " Till us death do part ! * 196 THE INN ALBUM. " No longer ? Come, that's right and rational ! I fancied there was power in common sense, But did not know it worked thus promptly. Well — At last each understands the other, then ? Each drops disguise, then ? So, at supper-time These masquerading people doff their gear, Grand Turk his pompous turban. Quakeress Her stiff- starched bib and tucker, — make-believe That only bothers when, ball-business done, Nature demands champagne and mayonnaise. Just so has each of us sage three abjured His and her moral pet particular Pretension to superiority, And, cheek by jowl, we henceforth munch and joke ! Go, happy pair, paternally dismissed To live and die together — for a month, THE INN ALBUM. 197 Discretion can award no more ! Depart From whatsoe'er the calm sweet solitude Selected — Paris not improbably — At month's end, when the honeycomb's left wax, — You, daughter, with a pocketful of gold Enough to find your village boys and girls In duffel cloaks and hobnailed shoes from May To — what's the phrase ? — Christmas-come-never-mas ! You, son and heir of mine, shall re-appear Ere Spring-time, that's the ring-time, lose one leaf, And — not without regretful smack of lip The while you wipe it free of honey-smear — Marry the cousin, play the magistrate, Stand for the county, prove perfection's pink — Master of hounds, gay- coated dine — nor die Sooner than needs of gout, obesity, 198 THE INN ALBUM. And sons at Christ Church ! As for me, — ah me, I abdicate — retire on my success, Four years well occupied in teaching youth — My son and daughter the exemplary ! Time for me to retire now, having placed Proud on their pedestal the pair : in turn, Let them do homage to their master ! You, — Well, your flushed cheek and flashing eye proclaim Sufficiently your gratitude : you paid The honorarium, the ten thousand pounds To purpose, did you not ? I told you so ! And you, — but, bless me, why so pale — so faint At influx of good fortune ? Certainly, No matter how or why or whose the fault, I save your life — save it, nor less nor more ! You blindly were resolved to welcome death THE INN ALBUM. 199 In that black boor-and-bumpkin-haunted hole Of his, the prig with all the preachments ! You Installed as nurse and matron to the crones And wenches, while there lay a world outside Like Paris (which again I recommend) In company and guidance of — first, this, Then — all in good time — some new friend as fit — What if I were to say, some fresh myself, As I once figured ? Each dog has his day, And mine's at sunset : what should old dog do But eye young litters' frisky puppyhood ? I shall watch this beauty and this youth Frisk it in brilliance ! But don't fear ! Discreet, 1 shall pretend to no more recognize My quondam pupils than the doctor nods When certain old acquaintances may cross )o THE INN ALBUM. His path in Park, or sit down prim beside His plate at dinner-table : tip nor wink Scares patients he has put, for reason good, Under restriction, — maybe, talked sometimes Of douche or horsewhip to, — for why ? because The gentleman would crazily declare His best friend was — Iago ! Ay, and worse — The lady, all at once grown lunatic, In suicidal monomania vowed, To save her soul, she needs must starve herself ! They're cured now, both, and I tell nobody. Why don't you speak ? Nay, speechless, each of you Can spare, — without unclasping plighted troth, — At least one hand to shake ! Left-hands will do — Yours first, my daughter ! Ah, it guards — it gripes The precious Album fast — and prudently ! THE INN ALBUM. 201 As well obliterate the record there On page the last : allow me tear the leaf ! Pray, now ! And afterward, to make amends, What if all three of us contribute each A line to that prelusive fragment, — help The embarrassed bard who broke out to break down Dumbfoundered at such unforseen success ? ' Hail, calm acclivity ', salubrious spot ' You begin — place aux dames ! I'll prompt you then ! 1 Here do I take the good the gods allot I ' Next you, Sir ! What, still sulky ? Sing, O Muse ! 1 Here does my lord in full discharge his shot ! ' Now for the crowning flourish ! mine shall be . . " " Nothing to match your first effusion, mar What was, is, shall remain your masterpiece ! )2 THE INN ALBUM. Authorship has the alteration-itch ! No, I protest against erasure. Read, My friend ! " (she gasps out.) " Read and quickly read ' He/ore us death do part] what made you mine And made me yours — the marriage-licence here ! Decide if he is like to mend the same ! " And so the lady, white to ghastliness, Manages somehow to display the page With left-hand only, while the right retains The other hand, the young man's, — dreaming- drunk He, with this drench of stupifying stuff, Eyes wide, mouth open, — half the idiot's stare And half the prophet's insight, — holding tight, All the same, by his one fact in the world — The lady's right-hand : he but seems to read — THE INN ALBUM. 203 Does not, for certain ; yet, how understand Unless he reads ? So, understand he does, For certain. Slowly, word by word, she reads Aloud that licence — or that warrant, say. ' One against two — and two that urge their odds To uttermost — / needs must try resource ! Madam, I laid me prostrate, bade you spurn Body and soul : you spurned and safely spurned So you had spared me the superfluous taunt 1 Prostration means no power to stand erect, Stand, trampling on who trampled— prostrate now I ' So, with my other fool-foe : I was fai?i Let the boy touch me with the buttoned foil, 2o 4 THE INN ALBUM. i And him the infection gains, he too must needs Catch up the butcher's cleaver. Be it so ! Since play turns eai'nest, here's my serious fence. He loves you ; he demands your love : both knoiu What love means in my language. Love him the?i ! Pursuant to a pact, love pays my debt : Therefore, deliver me from him, thereby Likewise delivering from me yourself ! For, hesitate — much more, refuse consent — / tell the whole truth to your husband. Flat Cards lie on table, in our gamester-phrase ! Consent — you stop my mouth, the only way' " 1 did well, trusting instinct : knew your hand Had never joined with his in fellowship Over this pact of infamy. You known — THE INN ALBUM. 205 As he was known through every nerve of me. Therefore I ' stopped his month the only way \ But my way ! none was left for you, my friend — The loyal — near, the loved one ! No — no — no ! Threaten ? Chastise ? The coward would but quail. Conquer who can, the cunning of the snake ! Stamp out his slimy strength from tail to head, And still you leave vibration of the tongue. His malice had redoubled — not on me Who, myself, choose my own refining fire — But on poor unsuspicious innocence ; And, — victim, — to turn executioner Also — that feat effected, forky tongue Had done indeed its office ! Once snake's ' mouth Thus ' open ' — how could mortal c stop it ' ? " THE INN ALBUM. < So ! " A tiger-flash — yell, spring, and scream : halloo ! Death's out and on him, has and holds him — ugh ! But ne trucidet coram fiofiulo Juvenis senem ! Right the Horatian rule ! There, see how soon a quiet comes to pass ! THE INN ALBUM. 207 VIII. The youth is somehow by the lady's side. His right-hand grasps her right-hand once again. Both gaze on the dead body. Hers the word. " And that was good but useless. Had I lived The danger was to dread : but, dying now — Himself would hardly become talkative, Since talk no more means torture. Fools — what fools These wicked men are ! Had I borne four years, Four years of weeks and months and days and nights, Inured me to the consciousness of life 2oS THE TNN ALBUM. Coiled round by his life, with the tongue to ply, — But that I bore about me, for prompt use At urgent need, the thing that ' stops the 771011th ' And stays the venom ? Since such need was now Or never, — how should use not follow need? Bear witness for me, I withdraw from life By virtue of the licence — warrant, say, That blackens yet this Album — white again, Thanks still to my one friend who tears the page ! Now, let me write the line of supplement, As counselled by my foe there : c each a line!' And she does falteringly write to end. * / die now through the villain who lies dead, /Righteously slain. He would have outraged me, THE INN ALBUM. 209 So, my defender slew him. God protect The right ! Where wrong lay, I bear witness now. Let man believe me, whose last breath is spent In blessing my defender from my soul J 1 And so ends the Inn Album. As she dies, Begins outside a voice that sounds like song, And is indeed half song though meant for speech Muttered in time to motion — stir of heart That unsubduably must bubble forth To match the fawn-step as it mounts the stair. " All's ended and all's over ! Verdict found ' Not guilty ' — prisoner forthwith set free, p io THE INN ALBUM. i Mid cheers the Court pretends to disregard ! Now Portia, now for Daniel, late severe, At last appeased, benignant ! c This young man — Hem — has the young marts foibles but no fault. He's virgin soil — a friend must cultivate. I think no plant called l love ' grows wild — a friend May introduce, and name the bloom, the fruit P Here somebody dares wave a handkerchief — She'll want to hide her face with presently ! Good-bye then ! i Cignofedel, cigno fedel, Addio ! ' Now, was ever such mistake — Ever such foolish ugly omen ? Pshaw ! Wagner, beside ! ' Amo te solo, te Solo amai P That's worth fifty such ! But, mum, the grave face at the opened door ! " THE INN ALBUM. 211 And so the good gay girl, with eyes and cheeks Diamond and damask, — cheeks so white erewhile Because of a vague fancy, idle fear Chased on reflection ! — pausing, taps discreet ; And then, to give herself a countenance, Before she cbmes upon the pair inside, Loud — the oft-quoted, long-laughed-over line — " ' Hail, calm acclivity, salubrious spot ! ' Open the door ! " No : let the curtain fall ! LONDON! PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET POEMS BY ROBERT BROWNING. POETICAL WORKS of ROBERT BROWNING. New and Uniform Edition, 6 vols. fcp. 8vo. each 5*. RED COTTON NIGH I -CAP COUNTRY; or, Turf and Towers. Fcp. 8vo. 9.?. The RING and the BOOK. 4 vols. fcp. 8vo. each 55. BALAUSTIONS ADVENTURE ; Including a Transcript fi'om Euripides. Fcp. 8vo. 5s. ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY; Including a Transcript from Ewipides, being the Last Adventure of Balaustion. Fcp. 8vo. xos. 6d. FIFINE at the FAIR. Fcp. 8vo. 5s. PRINCE H0HENS77EL-SCHWANGAU, Saviour of Society. Fcp. 8vo. 5s. POEMS. By ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. Ninth Edition, 5 vols, crown 8vo. with Portrait, 30J. Three Volumes, uniformly bound in cloth, gilt edges, each Ss. 6d. cloth, plain edges, each 7s. 6d. 1. A SELECTION from the POETRY of ELIZA- BETH BARRgTT BROWNING. With a Portrait of the Author. 2. A SELECTION from the POETICAL WORKS of ROBERT BROWNING. 3. AURORA LEIGH. By Elizabeth Barrett Browning. With a Portrait of the Author. London : SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place. in* lllWW^