That Romney Leigh had asked me for a wife,
And I refused him?’
‘Did he ask?’ I said;
‘I think he rather stooped to take me up
For certain uses which he found to do
For something called a wife. He never asked.’
‘What stuff!’ she answered; ‘are they queens, these girls?
They must have mantles, stitched with twenty silks,
Spread out upon the ground, before they’ll step
One footstep for the noblest lover born.’
‘But I am born,’ I said with firmness, ‘I,
To walk another way than his, dear aunt.’
‘You walk, you walk! A babe at thirteen months
Will walk as well as you,’ she cried in haste,
‘Without a steadying finger. Why, you child,
God help you, you are groping in the dark,
For all this sunlight. You suppose, perhaps,
That you, sole offspring of an opulent man,
Are rich and free to choose a way to walk?
You think, and it’s a reasonable thought,
That I besides, being well to do in life,
Will leave my handful in my niece’s hand
When death shall paralyse these fingers? Pray,
Pray, child,—albeit I know you love me not,—
As if you loved me, that I may not die!
For when I die and leave you, out you go,
(Unless I make room for you in my grave)
