第23章 SATIRES OF CIRCUMSTANCES IN FIFTEEN GLIMPSES(1)

I--AT TEA

The kettle descants in a cozy drone, And the young wife looks in her husband's face, And then at her guest's, and shows in her own Her sense that she fills an envied place;

And the visiting lady is all abloom, And says there was never so sweet a room.

And the happy young housewife does not know That the woman beside her was first his choice, Till the fates ordained it could not be so . . .

Betraying nothing in look or voice The guest sits smiling and sips her tea, And he throws her a stray glance yearningly.

II--IN CHURCH

"And now to God the Father," he ends, And his voice thrills up to the topmost tiles:

Each listener chokes as he bows and bends, And emotion pervades the crowded aisles.

Then the preacher glides to the vestry-door, And shuts it, and thinks he is seen no more.

The door swings softly ajar meanwhile, And a pupil of his in the Bible class, Who adores him as one without gloss or guile, Sees her idol stand with a satisfied smile And re-enact at the vestry-glass Each pulpit gesture in deft dumb-show That had moved the congregation so.

III--BY HER AUNT'S GRAVE

"Sixpence a week," says the girl to her lover, "Aunt used to bring me, for she could confide In me alone, she vowed. 'Twas to cover The cost of her headstone when she died.

And that was a year ago last June;

I've not yet fixed it. But I must soon."

"And where is the money now, my dear?"

"O, snug in my purse . . . Aunt was SO slow In saving it--eighty weeks, or near." . . .

"Let's spend it," he hints. "For she won't know.

There's a dance to-night at the Load of Hay."

She passively nods. And they go that way.

IV--IN THE ROOM OF THE BRIDE-ELECT

"Would it had been the man of our wish!"

Sighs her mother. To whom with vehemence she In the wedding-dress--the wife to be -

"Then why were you so mollyish As not to insist on him for me!"

The mother, amazed: "Why, dearest one, Because you pleaded for this or none!"

"But Father and you should have stood out strong!

Since then, to my cost, I have lived to find That you were right and that I was wrong;

This man is a dolt to the one declined . . .

Ah!--here he comes with his button-hole rose.

Good God--I must marry him I suppose!"

V--AT A WATERING-PLACE

They sit and smoke on the esplanade, The man and his friend, and regard the bay Where the far chalk cliffs, to the left displayed, Smile sallowly in the decline of day.

And saunterers pass with laugh and jest -

A handsome couple among the rest.

"That smart proud pair," says the man to his friend, "Are to marry next week . . . How little he thinks That dozens of days and nights on end I have stroked her neck, unhooked the links Of her sleeve to get at her upper arm . . .

Well, bliss is in ignorance: what's the harm!"

VI --IN THE CEMETERY

"You see those mothers squabbling there?"

Remarks the man of the cemetery.

One says in tears, ''Tis mine lies here!'

Another, 'Nay, mine, you Pharisee!'

Another, 'How dare you move my flowers And put your own on this grave of ours!'

But all their children were laid therein At different times, like sprats in a tin.

"And then the main drain had to cross, And we moved the lot some nights ago, And packed them away in the general foss With hundreds more. But their folks don't know, And as well cry over a new-laid drain As anything else, to ease your pain!"

VII--OUTSIDE THE WINDOW

"My stick!" he says, and turns in the lane To the house just left, whence a vixen voice Comes out with the firelight through the pane, And he sees within that the girl of his choice Stands rating her mother with eyes aglare For something said while he was there.

"At last I behold her soul undraped!"

Thinks the man who had loved her more than himself;

"My God--'tis but narrowly I have escaped. -

My precious porcelain proves it delf."

His face has reddened like one ashamed, And he steals off, leaving his stick unclaimed.

VIII--IN THE STUDY

He enters, and mute on the edge of a chair Sits a thin-faced lady, a stranger there, A type of decayed gentility;

And by some small signs he well can guess That she comes to him almost breakfastless.

"I have called--I hope I do not err -

I am looking for a purchaser Of some score volumes of the works Of eminent divines I own, -

Left by my father--though it irks My patience to offer them." And she smiles As if necessity were unknown;

"But the truth of it is that oftenwhiles I have wished, as I am fond of art, To make my rooms a little smart."