Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/115

For an end it must have, and that very soon,
If they moved all this planet and joggled the moon,
To shake out the cobweb that hung in her brain,
And bring Arabella to reason again.
So Mrs. Dynevor, in lace and brocade,
Approved of the plan which the grim major laid,
Like a worldly-wise man as he was, to be sure,
To rescue the maiden from marrying poor;
And the gold-loving merchant, her father, as well
Conspired with the others against Arabelle.

A big burly ledger lay idle before
A weary young man by the counting-room door,
Who, stopping a moment, looked off and away
With a wondering thought—
⁠If he ever did play,
Or should do anything but this writing,
While other men yonder for glory were fighting,—
And then with a sigh of impatience, the fellow
Wrote down as an item the word "Arabella."
So, dropping his head on his arm as it lay,
To the region of dreams soon he floated away—
To a wonderful land where the maiden so dear
Seemed bending his whispered devotion to hear,
Now laying her hand on his hot weary brow;
Now spirited off—he never knew how—
Till swiftly the vision was shattered and broke;
And the glitter of arms through the thick battle-smoke
Blurred over the face that was sunshine to him,
And the violet eyes in the shadow grew dim.