The Declaration

!Twas late, and the gay company was gone,     And the light lay soft on the deserted room     From alabaster vases, and a scent     Of orange leaves, and sweet verbena came     Through the unshutterd window on the air,     And the rich pictures with their dark old tints     Hung like a twilight landscape, and all things     Seemd hushd into a slumber. Isabel,     The dark-eyed, spiritual Isabel     Was leaning on her harp, and I had stayd     To whisper what I could not when the crowd     Hung on her look like worshippers. I knelt,     And with the fervor of a lip unused     To the cool breath of reason, told my love.     There was no answer, and I took the hand     That rested on the strings, and pressd a kiss     Upon it unforbidden, and again     Besought her, that this silent evidence     That I was not indifferent to her heart,     Might have the seal of one sweet syllable.     I kissd the small white fingers as I spoke,     And she withdrew them gently, and upraised     Her forehead from its resting place, and lookd     Earnestly on me, She had been asleep