Page:Aurora Leigh a Poem.djvu/253

—I thank God I have found her! I must say
‘Thank, God,’ for finding her, although ’tis true
I find the world more sad and wicked for’t.
But she—
⁠I’ll write about her, presently;
My hand’s a-tremble as I had just caught up
My heart to write with, in the place of it.
At least you’d take these letters to be writ
At sea, in storm!—wait now . .
⁠A simple chance
Did all. I could not sleep last night, and tired
Of turning on my pillow and harder thoughts
Went out at early morning, when the air
Is delicate with some last starry touch,
To wander through the Market-place of Flowers
(The prettiest haunt in Paris), and make sure
At worst, that there were roses in the world.
So wandering, musing with the artist’s eye,
That keeps the shade-side of the thing it loves,
Half-absent, whole-observing, while the crowd
Of young vivacioius and black-braided heads
Dipped, quick as finches in a blossomed tree,
Among the nosegays, cheapening this and that
In such a cheerful twitter of rapid speech,—
My heart leapt in me, startled by a voice
That slowly, faintly, with long breaths that marked
The interval between the wish and word,
Inquired in stranger’s French, ‘Would that be much,
That branch of flowering mountain-gorse?’—‘So much?
Too much for me, then!’ turning the face round