The Story
of Saville
Disgust in the eyes she had wiped of their tears, a sneer on the lips she had fed,
A beggar’s brat full patient and still through many a fevered dream
Yet start convulsive at sight of her face and turn with a ringing scream,—
She had come to believe that the dogs in the street howled as she passed them by,
And every glance at her face was a blow, and her every breath was a cry!
And now her body seemed but as a leaf that shrivels and curls in a flame,
And she shrank as a slave shrinks under the whip under her terrible shame,—
She had given herself as a wedded wife to a stainless knight and a true,
She whom never a churl on earth could knowingly, honestly woo,—
Oh! in a biting shame like this there’s only one thing to do!
Ah, why did he love her so passing well? For the very force of that love
Idealized, glorified, sanctified her, throned her all women above,
Made her a star in the firmanent, the marvel and wonder thereof,—
