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VII.

Thou let'st the stranger's glove lie where it fell;
If old things remain old things all is well,

For thou art grateful as becomes man best:
And hadst thou only heard me play one tune,
Or viewed me from a window, not so soon

With thee would such things fade as with the rest.

VIII.

I seem to see! we meet and part: 'tis brief:
The book I opened keeps a folded leaf,

The very chair I sat on, breaks the rank;
That is a portrait of me on the wall-
Three lines, my face comes at so slight a call;
And for all this, one little hour's to thank.

IX.

But now, because the hour through years was fixed,
Because our inmost beings met and mixed,

Because thou once hast loved me-wilt thou dare
Say to thy soul and Who may list beside,
"Therefore she is immortally my bride,

Chance cannot change that love, nor time impair.

X.

"So, what if in the dusk of life that's left,
I, a tired traveller, of my son bereft,

Look from my path when, mimicking the same,
The fire-fly glimpses past me, come and gone?
- Where was it till the sunset? where anon
It will be at the sunrise! what's to blame?"

XI.

Is it so helpfull to thee? canst thou take
The mimic up, nor, for the true thing's sake,
Put gently by such efforts at a beam?

Is the remainder of the way so long

Thou need'st the little solace, thou the strong?

Watch out thy watch, let weak ones doze and dream!

XII.

Ah, but the fresher faces! Is it true,"

Thou'lt ask, 66

some eyes are beautiful and new?

Some hair, how can one choose but grasp such wealth? And if a man would press his lips to lips

Fresh as the wilding hedge-rose-cup there slips The dew-drop out of, must it be by stealth? VOL. XCVII.

KK

XII.

"It cannot change the love kept still for Her, Much more than, such a picture to prefer

Passing a day with, to a room's bare side. The painted form takes nothing she possessed, Yet while the Titian's Venus lies at rest

A man looks. Once more, what is there to chide ?"

XIV.

So must I see, from where I sit and watch,
My own self sell myself, my hand attach

Its warrant to the very thefts from me-
Thy singleness of soul that made me proud,
Thy purity of heart I loved aloud,

Thy man's truth I was bold to bid God see!

XV.

Love so, then, if thou wilt! Give all thou canst
Away to the new faces-disentranced-
(Say it and think it) obdurate no more,
Re-issue looks and words from the old mint-
Pass them afresh, no matter whose the print
Image and superscription once they bore!

XVI.

Re-coin thyself and give it them to spend,-
It all comes to the same thing at the end,

Since mine thou wast, mine art, and mine shalt be, Faithful or faithless, sealing up the sum

Or lavish of my treasure, thou must come

Back to the heart's place here I keep for thee!

XVII.

Only, why should it be with stain at all?
Why must I, 'twixt the leaves of coronal,

Put any kiss of pardon on thy brow?
Why need the other women know so much
And talk together, "Such the look and such

The smile he used to love with, then as now !"

XVIII.

Might I die last and show thee! Should I find
Such hardship in the few years left behind,

If free to take and light my lamp, and go
Into thy tomb, and shut the door and sit
Seeing thy face on those four sides of it

The better that they are so blank, I know!

XIX.

Why, time was what I wanted, to turn o'er
Within my mind each look, get more and more
By heart each word, too much to learn at first,
And join thee all the fitter for the pause
'Neath the low door-way's lintel. That were cause
For lingering, though thou calledst, if I durst!

XX.

And yet thou art the nobler of us two.
What dare I dream of, that thou canst not do,
Outstripping my ten small steps with one stride?
I'll say then, here's a trial and a task-

Is it to bear?-if easy, I'll not ask—

Though love fail, I can trust on in thy pride.

XXI.

Pride?-when those eyes forestall the life behind The death I have to go through !-when I find, Now that I want thy help most, all of thee! What did I fear? Thy love shall hold me fast Until the little minute's sleep is past

And I wake saved.—And yet, it will not be!

EVELYN HOPE.

(From the Same.)

I.

BEAUTIFUL Evelyn Hope is dead,

Sit and watch by her side an hour.
That is her book-shelf, this her bed;
She plucked that piece of geranium-flower,
Beginning to die too, in the glass.

Little has yet been changed, I think—
The shutters are shut, no light may pass
Save two long rays thro' the hinge's chink.

II.

Sixteen years old when she died!

Perhaps she had scarcely heard my name-
It was not her time to love: beside,
Her life had many a hope and aim,
Duties enough and little cares,

And now was quiet, now astir-
Till God's hand beckoned unawares,
And the sweet white brow is all of her.

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And our paths in the world diverged so wide,
Each was nought to each, must I be told?
We were fellow mortals, nought beside?

IV.

No, indeed! for God above

Is great to grant, as mighty to make,
And creates the love to reward the love,-
I claim you still, for my own love's sake!
Delayed it may be for more lives yet,

Through worlds I shall traverse, not a few—
Much is to learn and much to forget

Ere the time be come for taking you.

V.

But the time will come,-at last it will,
When, Evelyn Hope, what meant, I shall say,
In the lower earth, in the years long still,
That body and soul so pure and gay?
Why your hair was amber, I shall divine,

And your mouth of your own geranium's red-
And what you would do with me, in fine,

In the new life come in the old one's stead.

VI.

I have lived, I shall say, so much since then,
Given up myself so many times,
Gained me the gains of various men,

Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes;
Yet one thing, one, in my soul's full scope,
Either I missed, or itself missed me-
And I want and find you, Evelyn Hope!
What is the issue? let us see!

VII.

I loved you, Evelyn, all the while;

My heart seemed full as it could holdThere was place and to spare for the frank

young smile And the red young mouth and the hair's young gold. So, hush, I will give you this leaf to keep

See, I shut it inside the sweet cold hand.

There, that is our secret! go to sleep;

You will wake, and remember, and understand.

INDEX.

[N.B. The figures between [] refer to the History.]

ACCIDENTS-In coal mines, return of the

Government inspectors, 2; at the cen-
tral station at Leeds, 3; locomotive ex-
plosion on the North Eastern Railway,
and at Gloucester, 12; on the ice in St.
James's Park, 13; through the intense
frost, 24; fall of a house at Islington,
seven lives lost, 30; mysterious death of
maj. Young, at Portsmouth, 38; fall of
a bridge at Bristol, 55; boat accident
on Loch Gowna, four gentlemen drowned,
60; sinking of a ferry boat on the Se-
vern, loss of seven lives, 76; fall of the
Atlas Iron Works, Southwark, 85; fall
of the South Lambeth Water Works,
four lives lost, 95; fatal cliff accidents;
to miss Wetherby, at Broadstairs; miss
Oxley, at Bridlington; miss Fitzpatrick,
at Llandudno, 115; on the Aberdeen
railway, 117; at the railway bridge,
Rochester, 126; fatal boiler explosions
at Sheffield, 127; singular accident at
the Cremorne Gardens, during a mili-
tary fête, 128; singular and fatal acci-
dent on Westminster Bridge, 129; on
the New York and Philadelphia rail-
way, 21 persons killed, 140; railway
accident at Reading, four persons killed,
148; on the Manchester, Sheffield, and
Lincolnshire line, three persons killed,
149; dreadful railway accidents in
France-on the Paris and Versailles
line, many persons killed; on the Lyons
railway, 16 persons killed, 150; fatal
boat accidents on the Medway, in Ply-
mouth harbour, and at Broadstairs, 151;
fire-work factory exploded by lightning,
151; numerous railway accidents and
suicide, 152; boiler explosion at New-
castle, eight persons killed, 153; fright-
ful gas explosion in Birmingham work-
house, 165; dreadful railway accident
in America, 22 persons killed, 170; ex-
traordinary deaths of a father and son
at Brighton, 171; boiler explosion in
Whitechapel, five lives lost, 174; dread-
ful explosion of a magazine in the

Accidents-continued.

French lines before Sebastopol, 175;
an actress burnt to death on the stage,
at the Portsmouth theatre, 177; colli-
sion on the Great Western Railway,
178; frightful colliery accidents, 178;
explosion at Woolwich arsenal, several
lives lost, 181; accident on the North
Kent Railway, 181; furnace explosion
at Bilston, five persons burnt to death,
196; fatal gunpowder explosion at
Sedgley, four persons killed, 197; acci-
dents on the Medway, three officers
drowned, 197.

ACTS, LIST OF, 18 & 19 VICT.-i. Public
General Acts, 437; ij. Local and Per-
sonal Acts, declared public and to be
judicially noticed, 442; iij. Private
Acts, printed, 450; Private Acts, not
printed, 451.
AFRICA-Horrible destruction of Caffres
by the Dutch settlers, at the Cape, 53;
English war in Sennegambia, 120.
Antiquities-Sale of Mr. Bernal's collec-
tion of antiquity and art, 41.
AUSTRALIA-Riots or insurrection at the
gold diggings, 48.

AUSTRIA-Concordat of the Emperor
with the Pope, immense concessions to
the Papal See [279] (for the part taken
by Austria in the War with Russia, see
PARLIAMENT, Negotiations at Vienna).

BIRTHS, 212.

Colliery Accidents and Explosions-Re-
port of accidents in coal mines, 2; at
the Cwmannan colliery, Aberdare, eight
persons killed, 178; near Dukinfield,
four men killed, 179.
CORN, HAY, STRAW, CLOVER,
BUTCHER'S MEAT, Prices of, 470.

AND

DEATHS-Abbot, hon. P. H. 315; Abdy,
col. 316; Abercromby, sir R. 292;
Adair, rt. hon. sir R. 310; Adams,
mrs. E. 249; Adams, mrs. F. L. 331;

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