Page:Ferishtah's fancies - Browning (1884).djvu/76

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68
FERISHTAH'S FANCIES.
When I vexed you and you chid me,
And I owned my fault and turned
My cheek the way you bid me,
And confessed the blow well earned,—

My comfort all the while was
—Fault was faulty—near, not quite!
Do you wonder why the smile was?
O'erpunished wrong grew right.

But faults you ne'er suspected,
Nay, praised, no faults at all,―
Those would you had detected—
Crushed eggs whence snakes could crawl!