Lord Walter's Wife

2'But where do you go?' said the lady, while both sat under the yew,

3And her eyes were alive in their depth, as the kraken beneath the sea-blue.

4II

5'Because I fear you,' he answered; — 'because you are far too fair,

6And able to strangle my soul in a mesh of your golfd-coloured hair.'

7III

8'Oh that,' she said, 'is no reason! Such knots are quickly undone,

9And too much beauty, I reckon, is nothing but too much sun.'

10IV

11'Yet farewell so,' he answered; — 'the sunstroke's fatal at times.

12I value your husband, Lord Walter, whose gallop rings still from the limes.

13V

14'Oh that,' she said, 'is no reason. You smell a rose through a fence:

15If two should smell it what matter? who grumbles, and where's the pretense?

16VI

17'But I,' he replied, 'have promised another, when love was free,

18To love her alone, alone, who alone from afar loves me.'

19VII

20'Why, that,' she said, 'is no reason. Love's always free I am told.

21Will you vow to be safe from the headache on Tuesday, and think it will hold?

22VIII

23'But you,' he replied, 'have a daughter, a young child, who was laid

24In your lap to be pure; so I leave you: the angels would make me afraid."

25IX

26'Oh that,' she said, 'is no reason. The angels keep out of the way;

27And Dora, the child, observes nothing, although you should please me and stay.'

28X

29At which he rose up in his anger, — 'Why now, you no longer are fair!

30Why, now, you no longer are fatal, but ugly and hateful, I swear.'

31XI

32At which she laughed out in her scorn: 'These men! Oh these men overnice,

33Who are shocked if a colour not virtuous is frankly put on by a vice.'

34XII

35Her eyes blazed upon him — 'And you! You bring us your vices so near

36That we smell them! You think in our presence a thought 'twould defame us to hear!

37XIII

38'What reason had you, and what right, — I appel to your soul from my life, —

39To find me so fair as a woman? Why, sir, I am pure, and a wife.

40XIV

41'Is the day-star too fair up above you? It burns you not. Dare you imply

42I brushed you more close than the star does, when Walter had set me as high?

43XV

44'If a man finds a woman too fair, he means simply adapted too much

45To use unlawful and fatal. The praise! — shall I thank you for such?

46XVI

47'Too fair? — not unless you misuse us! and surely if, once in a while,

48You attain to it, straightaway you call us no longer too fair, but too vile.

49XVII

50'A moment, — I pray your attention! — I have a poor word in my head

51I must utter, though womanly custom would set it down better unsaid.

52XVIII

53'You grew, sir, pale to impertinence, once when I showed you a ring.

54You kissed my fan when I dropped it. No matter! I've broken the thing.

55XIX

56'You did me the honour, perhaps, to be moved at my side now and then

57In the senses — a vice, I have heard, which is common to beasts and some men.

58XX

59'Love's a virtue for heroes! — as white as the snow on high hills,

60And immortal as every great soul is that struggles, endures, and fulfils.

61XXI

62'I love my Walter profoundly, — you, Maude, though you faltered a week,

63For the sake of . . . what is it — an eyebrow? or, less still, a mole on the cheek?

64XXII

65'And since, when all's said, you're too noble to stoop to the frivolous cant

66About crimes irresistable, virtues that swindle, betray and supplant.

67XXIII

68'I determined to prove to yourself that, whate'er you might dream or avow

69By illusion, you wanted precisely no more of me than you have now.

70XXIV

71'There! Look me full in the face! — in the face. Understand, if you can,

72That the eyes of such women as I am are clean as the palm of a man.

73XXV

74'Drop his hand, you insult him. Avoid us for fear we should cost you a scar —

75You take us for harlots, I tell you, and not for the women we are.

76XXVI

77'You wronged me: but then I considered . . . there's Walter! And so at the end

78I vowed that he should not be mulcted, by me, in the hand of a friend.

79XXVII

80'Have I hurt you indeed? We are quits then. Nay, friend of my Walter, be mine!

81Come, Dora, my darling, my angel, and help me to ask him to dine.'