Leaving the present, with its depths and heights
Of life’s maturer sorrows and delights,
I turned back to my childhood’s level land,
And Roy and I, dear playmates, hand in hand,
Wandered in mem’ry through the olden ways.
It was the second evening of his coming.
Helen was playing dreamily, and humming
Some wordless melody of white-souled thought,
While Roy and I sat by the open door,
Re-living childish incidents of yore.
My eyes were glowing, and my cheeks were hot
With warm young blood; excitement, joy, or pain
Alike would send swift coursing through each vein.
Roy, always eloquent, was waxing fine,
And bringing vividly before my gaze
Some old adventure of those halcyon days,
When suddenly, in pauses of the talk,
I heard a well-known step upon the walk,
And looked up quickly to meet full in mine
The eyes of Vivian Dangerfield. A flash
Shot from their depths:—a sudden blaze of light
Like that swift followed by the thunder’s crash,
Which said, “Suspicion is confirmed by sight,”
As they fell on the pleasant doorway scene.
Then o’er his clear-cut face a cold, white look
Crept, like the pallid moonlight o’er a brook,
And, with a slight, proud bending of the head,
He stepped toward us haughtily, and said:
“Please pardon my intrusion, Miss Maurine,
I called to ask Miss Trevor for a book
She spoke of lending me; nay, sit you still,
And I, by grant of your permission, will
Pass by to where I hear her playing.”
“Stay,”
I said, “one moment, Vivian, if you please;”
And suddenly bereft of all my ease,
And scarcely knowing what to do or say,
Confused as any schoolgirl, I arose,
And some way made each to the other known.
They bowed, shook hands, then Vivian turned away
And sought out Helen, leaving us alone.
“One of Miss Trevor’s or of Maurine’s beaux?
Which may he be, who cometh like a prince
With haughty bearing and an eagle eye?”
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