Not despair, Not sorrow, not even the sense of her loss, Flow'd in those happy tears, so oblivious she was Of all save the sense of her own love! Anon, However, his words rush'd back to her. "All gone, The fortune you brought me!"
And eyes that were dim With soft tears she upraised; but those tears were for HIM.
"Gone! my husband?" she said," tell me all! see! I need, To sober this rapture, so selfish indeed, Fuller sense of affliction."
"Poor innocent child!"
He kiss'd her fair forehead, and mournfully smiled, As he told her the tale he had heard--something more, The gain found in loss of what gain lost of yore.
"Rest, my heart, and my brain, and my right hand, for you;
And with these, my Matilda, what may I not do?
And know not, I knew not myself till this hour, Which so sternly reveal'd it, my nature's full power."
"And I too," she murmur'd, "I too am no more The mere infant at heart you have known me before.
I have suffer'd since then. I have learn'd much in life.
O take, with the faith I have pledged as a wife, The heart I have learn'd as a woman to feel!
For I--love you, my husband!"
As though to conceal Less from him, than herself, what that motion express'd, She dropp'd her bright head, and hid all on his breast.
"O lovely as woman, beloved as wife!
Evening star of my heart, light forever my life!
If from eyes fix'd too long on this base earth thus far You have miss'd your due homage, dear guardian star, Believe that, uplifting those eyes unto heaven, There I see you, and know you, and bless the light given To lead me to life's late achievement; my own, My blessing, my treasure, my all things in one!"