The Rival

Topics: classic

I determined to find out whose it was - The portrait he looked at so, and sighed; Bitterly have I rued my meanness And wept for it since he died! I searched his desk when he was away, And there was the likeness - yes, my own! Taken when I was the season's fairest, And time-lines all unknown. I smiled at my image, and put it back, And he went on cherishing it, until I was chafed that he loved not the me then living, But that past woman still. Well, such was my jealousy at last, I destroyed that face of the former me; Could you ever have dreamed the heart of woman Would work so foolishly!

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"I determined to find out whose it was -..."

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