And sobb'd, and you sobb'd with it, and the blood
Was sprinkled on your kirtle, and you wept.
That was fawn's blood, not brother's, yet you wept.
O by the bright head of my little niece,

You were that Psyche, and what are you now?"
"You are that Psyche," Cyril said again,
"The mother of the sweetest little maid

260

That ever crow'd for kisses."

"" Out

upon it!"

She answer'd, "peace! and why should I not play
The Spartan Mother with emotion, be

The Lucius Junius Brutus of my kind?

Him you call great: he for the common weal,
The fading politics of mortal Rome,

As I might slay this child, if good need were,
Slew both his sons: and I, shall I, on whom
The secular emancipation turns

Of half this world, be swerved from right to save
A prince, a brother? a little will I yield.

Best so, perchance, for us, and well for you.
O hard, when love and duty clash! I fear
My conscience will not count me fleckless; yet-
Hear my conditions: promise (otherwise
You perish) as you came, to slip away

To-day, to-morrow, soon: it shall be said,

These women were too barbarous, would not learn;
They fled, who might have shamed us: promise, all."

270

What could we else, we promised each; and she, 280 Like some wild creature newly-caged, commenced

255. Kirtle, gown.

263. Spartan Mother with emotion, stamp emotion out; a Spartan mother would sacrifice all personal affection for public duty.

264. Lucius Junius Brutus, the establisher of the Roman Republic; when consul (509 B.C.) he condemned his sons to death for conspiring to restore the Tarquins to the throne, whence he had expelled them. 269. Secular, lasting for ages (contrasted with line 266). 270. Half, the woman-half.

A to-and-fro, so pacing till she paused
By Florian; holding out her lily arms,
Took both his hands, and smiling faintly said :
"I knew you at the first: tho' you have grown
You scarce have alter'd: I am sad and glad
To see you, Florian. I give thee to death,
My brother! it was duty spoke, not I.
My needful seeming harshness, pardon it.
Our mother, is she well?"

With that she kiss'd

His forehead, then, a moment after, clung
About him, and betwixt them blossom'd up
From out a common vein of memory

Sweet household talk, and phrases of the hearth,
And far allusion, till the gracious dews
Began to glisten and to fall and while

They stood, so rapt, we gazing, came a voice,
"I brought a message here from Lady Blanche."
Back started she, and turning round we saw

The Lady Blanche's daughter where she stood,
Melissa, with her hand upon the lock,
A rosy blonde, and in a college gown,
That clad her like an April daffodilly
(Her mother's colour) with her lips apart,
And all her thoughts as fair within her eyes
As bottom agates seen to wave and float
In crystal currents of clear morning seas.

66

So stood that same fair creature at the door.
Then Lady Psyche, "Ah-Melissa-you!
You heard us?" and Melissa, "O pardon me
I heard, I could not help it, did not wish:
But, dearest Lady, pray you fear me not,
Nor think I bear that heart within my breast,
To give three gallant gentlemen to death.”

304. The color worn by Lady Blanche's pupils.

290

300

310

"I trust you," said the other, "for we two
Were always friends, none closer, elm and vine:
But yet your mother's jealous temperament-
Let not your prudence, dearest, drowse, or prove
The Danaïd of a leaky vase, for fear

This whole foundation ruin, and I lose

My honour, these their lives." "Ah, fear me not,”
Replied Melissa; "no-I would not tell,

No, not for all Aspasia's cleverness,

No, not to answer, Madam, all those hard things
That Sheba came to ask of Solomon."

"Be it so" the other, "that we still may lead
The new light up, and culminate in peace,
For Solomon may come to Sheba yet.'

66

وو

Said Cyril, Madam, he the wisest man
Feasted the woman wisest then, in halls
Of Lebanonian cedar: nor should you

(Tho' Madam you should answer, we would ask)
Less welcome find among us, if you came

Among us, debtors for our lives to you,

Myself for something more." He said not what,

320

330

But "Thanks," she answer'd; "Go: we have been too long Together: keep your hoods about the face;

They do so that affect abstraction here.

316. Elm and vine, like the elm and the vine that clings about it. 319. Danaïd of a leaky vase. The Danaïdes were the fifty daughters of Danaüs, who killed their husbands; in Hades they have for punishment the task of eternally pouring water into sieves. The sense is, do not be one to let the secret leak out.

320. Whole foundation ruin, the college and its purpose be ruined. 323. Aspasia (440 B. C.), the most famous intellectual woman of Greece, the friend of Pericles, and the centre of the group about him in Athens.

325. Sheba. The Queen of Sheba visited Solomon because of his wisdom. 1 Kings x. 1–13; 2 Chronicles ix. 1–12.

335. Something more, his love for her.

338. Affect abstraction, pretend to be absorbed in thought and study.

Speak little; mix not with the rest; and hold
Your promise: all, I trust, may yet be well.”

We turn'd to go, but Cyril took the child,
And held her round the knees against his waist,
And blew the swoll'n cheek of a trumpeter,
While Psyche watch'd them, smiling, and the child
Push'd her flat hand against his face and laugh'd;
And thus our conference closed.

And then we stroll'd

For half the day thro' stately theatres

Bench'd crescent-wise. In each we sat, we heard
The grave Professor. On the lecture slate

The circle rounded under female hands
With flawless demonstration: follow'd then
A classic lecture, rich in sentiment,
With scraps of thundrous Epic lilted out
By violet-hooded Doctors, elegies
And quoted odes, and jewels five-words-long
That on the stretch'd forefinger of all Time
Sparkle for ever: then we dipt in all
That treats of whatsoever is, the state,
The total chronicles of man, the mind,

340

350

The morals, something of the frame, the rock,

360

The star, the bird, the fish, the shell, the flower,

348. Bench'd crescent-wise, each row of seats like a crescent, as in ordinary theatres.

350. Circle rounded, in mathematical demonstrations. 353. Lilted, intoned or spoken with a chanting voice.

355. Jewels five-words-long, short, immortal phrases, perfect in expression, which are well known; such as are to be found in Shakspere, Virgil, or other poets.

357-59. All, universal knowledge, politics, history, metaphysics, ethics.

360-62. Frame, the universal physical frame of things; and, in detail, the sciences, geology, astronomy, ornithology, ichthyology, conchology, botany, electricity, chemistry, and the rest. Wallace explains frame as man's frame, i. e., physiology.

Electric, chemic laws, and all the rest,
And whatsoever can be taught and known;
Till like three horses that have broken fence,
And glutted all night long breast-deep in corn,
We issued gorged with knowledge, and I spoke :
"Why, Sirs, they do all this as well as we."
"They hunt old trails" said Cyril "very well;
But when did woman ever yet invent ?"

380

“Ungracious!” answer'd Florian; “have you learnt 370
No more from Psyche's lecture, you that talk'd
The trash that made me sick, and almost sad ?"
"O trash" he said, "but with a kernel in it.
Should I not call her wise, who made me wise?
And learnt? I learnt more from her in a flash,
Than if my brainpan were an empty hull,
And every Muse tumbled a science in.
A thousand hearts lie fallow in these halls,
And round these halls a thousand baby loves
Fly twanging headless arrows at the hearts,
Whence follows many a vacant pang; but O
With me, Sir, enter'd in the bigger boy,
The Head of all the golden-shafted firm,
The long-limb'd lad that had a Psyche too;
He cleft me thro' the stomacher; and now
What think you of it, Florian? do I chase
The substance or the shadow ? will it hold?
I have no sorcerer's malison on me,
No ghostly hauntings like his Highness. I
Flatter myself that always everywhere

390

I know the substance when I see it. Well,

376. Brainpan, the part of the skull about the brain. 379. Baby loves, baby Cupids.

382. Boy, Cupid himself, the god, the child of Venus. He fell in love with Psyche, and their adventures are the subject of a beautiful classical romance.

383. Golden-shafted firm, the firm of the golden-shafted arrows. 385. Stomacher, a part of female dress, worn in front.

388. Malison, curse.