Page:Aurora Leigh a Poem.djvu/293

A babe upon her breast,—unnatural
Unseasonable outcast on such snows
Unthawed to this time. I will tax in this
Your friendship, friend,—if that convicted She
Be not his wife yet, to denounce the facts
To himself,—but, otherwise, to let them pass
On tip-toe like escaping murderers,
And tell my cousin, merely—Marian lives,
Is found, and finds her home with such a friend,
Myself, Aurora. Which good news, ‘She’s found,’
Will help to make him merry in his love:
I sent it, tell him, for my marriage gift,
As good as orange-water for the nerves,
Or perfumed gloves for headaches,—though aware
That he, except of love, is scarcely sick;
I mean the new love this time, . . since last year.
Such quick forgetting on the part of men!
Is any shrewder trick upon the cards
To enrich them? pray instruct me how it’s done.
First, clubs,—and while you look at clubs, it’s spades;
That’s prodigy. The lightning strikes a man,
And when we think to find him dead and charred . .
Why, there he is on a sudden, playing pipes
Beneath the splintered elm-tree! Crime and shame
And all their hoggery trample your smooth world,
Nor leave more foot-marks than Apollo’s kine,
Whose hoofs were muffled by the thieving god
In tamarisk-leaves and myrtle. I’m so sad,
So weary and sad to-night, I’m somewhat sour,—
Forgive me. To be blue and shrew at once,