196 THE WIFE S LETTER.
We love him so !" Death gave no answer, Except to come within the gate.
And now I know that safe no longer
Falls the cottage-latch for me, Though I waiting watch beside it
With weary head and bending knee ; Yet with eyelids closed and weary,
Quite forgetting day or date, I dream again how bright the heaven
Whose portal was the garden-gate.
��THE WIFE S LETTER.
" j\ TY letters?" A shapely hand stretched out; IVl The gold of a yellow beard was stirred A moment over the sombre mouth, Guiltless of idle or wasted word.
��The grasp that had known a sword-hilt well Closed tightly over the silent things
Which the postal eddy drifts in heaps Where human life to an anchor clings.
This one, with a great official seal, And that, with the solemn legal air,
Are opened slowly and gravely read, Then closed with a sober, quiet care.
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