"O long ago," she said, "betwixt these two
Division smoulders hidden: 'tis my mother,
Too jealous, often fretful as the wind
Pent in a crevice: much I bear with her:
I never knew my father, but she says
(God help her!) she was wedded to a fool;
And still she railed against the state of things.
She had the care of Lady Ida's youth,

And from the Queen's decease she brought her up
But when your sister came she won the heart
Of Ida: they were still together, grew
(For so they said themselves) inosculated;
Consonant chords that shiver to one note:
One mind in all things: yet my mother still
Affirms your Psyche thieved her theories,
And angled with them for her pupil's love :
She calls her plagiarist; I know not what:
But I must go: I dare not tarry," and light
As flies the shadow of a bird she fled.

Then murmured Florian, gazing after her :
"An open-hearted maiden, true and pure.
If I could love, why this were she: how pretty
Her blushing was, and how she blushed again,
As if to close with Cyril's random wish :

Not like your Princess crammed with erring pride,
Nor like poor Psyche whom she drags in tow.”

"The crane," I said, "may chatter of the crane, The dove may murmur of the dove, but I

An eagle clang an eagle to the sphere.
My Princess, oh my Princess! true she errs,
But in her own grand way: being herself

Three times more noble than threescore of men
She sees herself in every woman else,

And so she wears her error like a crown
To blind the truth and me: for her, and her,
Hebes are they to hand ambrosia, mix

The nectar; but-ah she-whene'er she moves

The Samian Herè rises and she speaks

A Memnon smitten with the morning Sun."

So saying, from the court we paced, and gained
The terrace ranged along the Northern front,
And leaning there on those balusters, high
Above the empurpled champaign, drank the gale
That blown about the foliage underneath,
And sated with the innumerable rose,
Beat balm upon our eyelids. Hither came
Cyril, and yawning, "O hard task!" he cried,
"No fighting shadows here! I forced a way
Through solid opposition, crabbed and gnarled.
Better to clear prime forests, heave and thump
A league of street in summer solstice down,
Than hammer at this reverend gentlewoman.
I knocked, and bidden, entered; found her there
At point to move, and settled in her eyes
The green malignant light of coming storm.
Sir, I was courteous, every phrase well-oiled,
As man's could be; yet maiden-meek I prayed
Concealment: she demanded who we were,
And why we came ? I fabled nothing fair,
But, your example pilot, told her all.
Up went the hushed amaze of hand and eye.
But when I dwelt upon your old affiance,
She answered sharply that I talked astray.
I urged the fierce inscription on the gate,

And our three lives. True-we had limed ourselves
With open eyes, and we must take the chance.
But such extremes, I told her, well might harm
The woman's cause. Not more than now,' she said,
So puddled as it is with favoritism.'

I tried the mother's heart. Shame might befall
Melissa, knowing, saying not she knew:

Her answer was, 'Leave me to deal with that.'
I spoke of war to come and many deaths,
And she replied, her duty was to speak,
And duty duty, clear of consequences.

I grew discouraged, Sir; but since I knew
No rock so hard but that a little wave
May beat admission in a thousand years,
I recommenced; Decide not ere you pause.
I find you here but in the second place,
Some say the third-the authentic foundress you.
I offer boldly: we will seat you highest:
Wink at our advent: help my Prince to gain
His rightful bride, and here I promise you
Some palace in our own land, where you shall reign
The head and heart of all our fair she-world,
And your great name flow on with broadening time
Forever.' Well, she balanced this a little,
And told me she would answer us to-day,
Meantime be mute: thus much, nor more, I gained "

He ceasing, came a message from the Head. "That afternoon the Princess rode to take The dip of certain strata to the North.

Would we go with her? we should find the land
Worth seeing; and the river made a fall
Out yonder" then she pointed on to where
A double hill ran up his furrowy forks
Beyond the thick-leaved platans of the vale.

Agreed to, this, the day fled on through all Its range of duties to the appointed hour. Then summoned to the porch we went. She stood Among her maidens, higher by the head, Her back against a pillar, her foot on one Of those tame leopards. Kittenlike he rolled And pawed about her sandal. I drew near: I gazed. On a sudden my strange seizure came Upon me, the weird vision of our house : The Princess Ida seemed a hollow show, Her gay-furred cats a painted fantasy, Her college and her maidens empty masks, And I myself the shadow of a dream, For all things were and were not.

Yet I felt

My heart beat thick with passion and with awe,
Then from my breast the involuntary sigh
Brake, as she smote me with the light of eyes
That lent my knee desire to kneel, and shook
My pulses, till to horse we got, and so
Went forth in long retinue following up
The river as it narrowed to the hills.

I rode beside her, and to me she said: "O friend, we trust that you esteemed us not Too harsh to your companion yestermorn; Unwillingly we spake.' "No-not to her," I answered, "but to one of whom we spake Your Highness might have seemed the thing you

say."

66 are you

Again?" she cried ; ambassadresses From him to me? we give you, being strange, A license: speak, and let the topic die."

I stammered that I knew him-could have wished

"Our king expects--was there no precontract-
There is no truer-hearted-ah, you seem
All he prefigured, and he could not see
The bird of passage flying south but longed
To follow: surely, if your Highness keep
Your purport, you will shock him even to death,
Or baser courses, children of despair."

"Poor boy," she said, "can he not read-no books?.

Quoit, tennis, ball-no games? nor deals in that
Which men delight in, martial exercise?

To nurse a blind ideal, like a girl,

Methinks he seems no better than a girl;
As girls were once, as we ourselves have been:
We had our dreams; perhaps he mixt with them:
We touch on our dead self, nor shun to do it,
Being other since we learnt our meaning here,

To lift the woman's fallen divinity
Upon an even pedestal with man.

She paused, and added with a haughtier smile
"And as to precontracts, we move, my friend,
At no man's beck, but know ourselves and thee,
O Vashti, noble Vashti! Summoned out
She kept her state, and left the drunken king
To brawl at Shushan underneath the palms.'

"Alas! your Highness breathes full East," I said, "On that which leans to you. I know the Prince, I prize his truth: and then how vast a work To assail this gray preeminence of man! You grant me license: might I use it? think, Ere half be done, perchance your life may fail; Then comes the feebler heiress of your plan, And takes and ruins all; and thus your pains May only make that footprint upon sand Which old-recurring waves of prejudice Resmooth to nothing: might I dread that you, With only Fame for spouse and your great deeds For issue, yet may live in vain, and miss, Meanwhile, what every woman counts her due, Love, children, happiness?"

And she exclaimed, "Peace, you young savage of the Northern wild! What! though your Prince's love were like a God's, Have we not made ourself the sacrifice ?

You are bold indeed: we are not talked to thus:
Yet will we say for children, would they grew
Like field-flowers everywhere! we like them well:
But children die; and let me tell you, girl,
Howe'er you babble, great deeds cannot die :
They with the sun and moon renew their light
Forever, blessing those that look on them:
Children--that men may pluck them from our
hearts

Kill us with pity, break us with ourselves—