And late it was easy; late, you walked

Where a friend might meet you; Edith's name Arose to one's lip if one laughed or talked ;

If I heard good news, you heard the same; When I woke, I knew that your breath escaped; I could bide my time, keep alive, alert.

10.

And alive I shall keep and long, you will see!
I knew a man, was kicked like a dog
From gutter to cesspool; what cared he

So long as he picked from the filth his prog?

He saw youth, beauty, and genius die,

And jollily lived to his hundredth year.

But I will live otherwise: none of such life!
At once I begin as I mean to end.

Go on with the world, get gold in its strife,

Give your spouse the slip, and betray your friend!

There are two who decline, a woman and I,

And enjoy our death in the darkness here.

11.

I liked that way you had with your curls

Wound to a ball in a net behind:

Your cheek was chaste as a quaker-girl's,

And

your mouth-there was never, to my mind,

Such a funny mouth, for it would not shut;

And the dented chin, too

what a chin !

There were certain ways when you spoke, some words

That you know you never could pronounce :

You were thin, however; like a bird's

But I turn my back on the world: I take
Your hand, and kneel, and lay to my lips.
Bid me live, Edith! Let me slake

Thirst at your presence! Fear no slips!
'Tis your slave shall pay, while his soul endures,
Full due, love's whole debt, summum jus.
My queen shall have high observance, planned
Courtship made perfect, no least line

Crossed without warrant.

There you stand,

Warm too, and white too: would this wine

Had washed all over that body of yours,

Ere I drank it, and you down with it, thus!

ABT VOGLER.

(AFTER HE HAS BEEN EXTEMPORIZING UPON THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OF HIS INVENTION.)