The Noble Lady's Tale

I      "We moved with pensive paces,      I and he,      And bent our faded faces      Wistfully,     For something troubled him, and troubled me.      "The lanthorn feebly lightened      Our grey hall,      Where ancient brands had brightened      Hearth and wall,     And shapes long vanished whither vanish all.      "'O why, Love, nightly, daily,'      I had said,      'Dost sigh, and smile so palely,      As if shed     Were all Life's blossoms, all its dear things dead?'      "'Since silence sets thee grieving,'      He replied,      'And I abhor deceiving      One so tried,     Why, Love, I'll speak, ere time us twain divide.'      "He held me, I remember,      Just as when      Our life was June - (September      It was then);     And we walked on, until he spoke again.      "'Susie, an Irish mummer,      Loud-acclaimed      Through the gay London summer,      Was I; named     A master in my art, who would be famed.      "'But lo, there beamed before me      Lady Su;      God's altar-vow she swore me      When none knew,     And for her sake I bade the sock adieu.      "'My Lord your father's pardon      Thus I won:      He let his heart unharden      Towards his son,     And honourably condoned what we had done;      "'But said - recall you, dearest? -      As for Su,      I'd see her - ay, though nearest      Me unto -     Sooner entombed than in a stage purlieu!      "'Just so. - And here he housed us,      In this nook,      Where Love like balm has drowsed us:      Robin, rook,     Our chief familiars, next to string and book.      "'Our days here, peace-enshrouded,      Followed strange      The old stage-joyance, crowded,      Rich in range;     But never did my soul desire a change,      "'Till now, when far uncertain      Lips of yore      Call, call me to the curtain,      There once more,     But ONCE, to tread the boards I trod before.      "'A night - the last and single      Ere I die -      To face the lights, to mingle      As did I     Once in the game, and rivet every eye!'      "'To something drear, distressing      As the knell      Of all hopes worth possessing!' . . .      - What befell     Seemed linked with me, but how I could not tell.      "Hours passed; till I implored him,      As he knew      How faith and frankness toward him      Ruled me through,     To say what ill I had done, and could undo.      "'FAITH - FRANKNESS. Ah! Heaven save such!'      Murmured he,      'They are wedded wealth! I gave such      Liberally,     But you, Dear, not. For you suspected me.'      "I was about beseeching      In hurt haste      More meaning, when he, reaching      To my waist,     Led me to pace the hall as once we paced.      "'I never meant to draw you      To own all,'      Declared he. 'But - I SAW you -      By the wall,     Half-hid. And that was why I failed withal!'      "'Where? when?' said I - 'Why, nigh me,      At the play      That night. That you should spy me,      Doubt my fay,     And follow, furtive, took my heart away!'      "That I had never been there,      But had gone      To my locked room - unseen there,      Curtains drawn,     Long days abiding - told I, wonder-wan.      "'Nay, 'twas your form and vesture,      Cloak and gown,      Your hooded features - gesture      Half in frown,     That faced me, pale,' he urged, 'that night in town.      "'And when, outside, I handed      To her chair      (As courtesy demanded      Of me there)     The leading lady, you peeped from the stair.      "Straight pleaded I: 'Forsooth, Love,      Had I gone,      I must have been in truth, Love,      Mad to don     Such well-known raiment.' But he still went on      "That he was not mistaken      Nor misled. -      I felt like one forsaken,      Wished me dead,     That he could think thus of the wife he had wed!      "His going seemed to waste him      Like a curse,      To wreck what once had graced him;      And, averse     To my approach, he mused, and moped, and worse.      "Till, what no words effected      Thought achieved:      IT WAS MY WRAITH - projected,      He conceived,     Thither, by my tense brain at home aggrieved.      "Thereon his credence centred      Till he died;      And, no more tempted, entered      Sanctified,     The little vault with room for one beside." III      Thus far the lady's story. -      Now she, too,      Reclines within that hoary      Last dark mew     In Mellstock Quire with him she loved so true.      A yellowing marble, placed there      Tablet-wise,      And two joined hearts enchased there      Meet the eyes;     And reading their twin names we moralize:      Did she, we wonder, follow      Jealously?      And were those protests hollow? -      Or saw he     Some semblant dame? Or can wraiths really be?      Were it she went, her honour,      All may hold,      Pressed truth at last upon her      Till she told -     (Him only - others as these lines unfold.)      Riddle death-sealed for ever,      Let it rest! . . .      One's heart could blame her never      If one guessed     That go she did. She knew her actor best.