Among the pushing people, . . to go . . where?’
One day, the last before the dreaded last,
Among the convalescents, like herself
Prepared to go next morning, she sate dumb,
And heard half absently the women talk,
How one was famished for her baby’s cheeks—
‘The little wretch would know her! a year old,
And lively, like his father!’ one was keen
To get to work, and fill some clamorous mouths;
And one was tender for her dear goodman
Who had missed her sorely,—and one, querulous . .
‘Would pay those scandalous neighbours who had dared
To talk about her as already dead,’—
And one was proud . . ‘and if her sweetheart Luke
Had left her for a ruddier face than hers,
(The gossip would be seen through at a glance)
Sweet riddance of such sweethearts—let him hang!
’Twere good to have been as sick for such an end.’
And while they talked, and Marian felt the worse
For having missed the worst of all their wrongs,
A visitor was ushered through the wards
And paused among the talkers. ‘When he looked,
It was as if he spoke, and when he spoke
He sang perhaps,’ said Marian; ‘could she tell?
She only knew’ (so much she had chronicled,
As seraphs might, the making of the sun)
‘That he who came and spake was Romney Leigh,
And then, and there, she saw and heard him first.’
