Page:Aurora Leigh a Poem.djvu/386

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AURORA LEIGH.
—‘And you,—what say you?—will you blame me much,
If, careful for that outcast child of mine,
I catch this hand that’s stretched to me and him,
Nor dare to leave him friendless in the world
Where men have stoned me? Have I not the right
To take so mere an aftermath from life,
Else found so wholly bare? Or is it wrong
To let your cousin, for a generous bent,
Put out his ungloved fingers among briars
To set a tumbling bird’s-nest somewhat straight?
You will not tell him, though we’re innocent
We are not harmless? . . and that both our harms
Will stick to his good smooth noble life like burrs,
Never to drop off though you shake the cloak?
You’ve been my friend: you will not now be his?
You’ve known him, that he’s worthy of a friend;
And you’re his cousin, lady, after all,
And therefore more than free to take his part,
Explaining, since the nest is surely spoilt,
And Marian what you know her,—though a wife,
The world would hardly understand her case
Of being just hurt and honest; while for him,
’Twould ever twit him with his bastard child
And married Harlot. Speak, while yet there’s time:
You would not stand and let a good man’s dog
Turn round and rend him, because his, and reared
Of a generous breed,—and will you let his act,
Because it’s generous? Speak. I’m bound to you,
And I’ll be bound by only you, in this.’