222
LADY GERALDINE'S COURTSHIP.
"Yes, your Silence," said I, "truly holds her symbol rose but slackly,
Yet she holds it—or would scarcely be a Silence to our ken!
And your nobles wear their ermine on the outside, or walk blackly
In the presence of the social law, as most ignoble men.
"Let the poets dream such dreaming! Madam, in these British islands,
'Tis the substance that wanes ever, 'tis the symbol that exceeds:
Soon we shall have nought but symbol! and for statues like this Silence
Shall accept the rose's marble—in another case, the weed's."
"I let you dream," she retorted, "and I grant where'er you go, you
Find for things, names—shows for actions, and pure gold for honour clear;
