Page:Enoch Arden, etc - Tennyson - 1864.djvu/127

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SEA DREAMS.
111
He suddenly dropt dead of heart-disease.’

‘Dead? he? of heart-disease? what heart had he
To die of? dead!’

‘Ah, dearest, if there be
A devil in man, there is an angel too,
And if he did that wrong you charge him with,
His angel broke his heart. But your rough voice
(You spoke so loud) has roused the child again.
Sleep, little birdie, sleep! will she not sleep
Without her “little birdie?” well then, sleep,
And I will sing you "birdie."'

Saying this,
The woman half turn’d round from him she loved,
Left him one hand, and reaching thro’ the night
Her other, found (for it was close beside)
And half embraced the basket cradle-head
With one soft arm, which, like the pliant bough