Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/116

 I 10 RICH AND POOR.

How, shifting and fading, swift vanish away His ledger and pen, and where they should lay A captain s commission ; beside it a steel Gold-hilted, true-tempered a trusty appeal. Did he dream ?

Ay, but waking, the vision came true, For Major Villait saw the matter quite through, Holding up a bright picture of speedy promotion, And a lover s reward for his patient devotion. A whispered &quot;good-bye,&quot; long lingering glances, And the captain had gone to the war and its chances.

Then, fading, the maid lost the rose from her cheek, And her light springing footstep grew weary and weak ; Her voice, that was once like a bird s merry song, Was wondrously quiet the summer-day long, Till the Dynevor mansion upon Murray Hill Grew sad in its grandeur so mournfully still That a chill to the hearts of the owners there came Lest a pale mighty hand Arabella should claim A bridegroom in truth rich enough in his way, For jewels from earth he has stolen away Which gold cannot buy from his awful domain Crown-jewels, reset, which shall glitter again.

So they called in the doctors of mighty repute, Who stared in her eyes, dropping dewy and mute ; They sounded her lungs, and they counted the beat Of her heart, lest the tide should be running too fleet,

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