Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/289

 THE UNBIDDEN GUEST. 283

Then touched with his hand, powder-blackened and grim,

The great Bible that lay on the chair : &quot; Not a Pequod among them can feather a shaft

But is turned by a good woman s prayer.&quot;

��THE UNBIDDEN GUEST.

YOU would never guess, if you tried a year. Who came, an unbidden guest, To the stylish wedding within the church, In a bridal garment dressed.

��Like a garden pathway the long aisle ran, Twixt masses of shade and bloom,

Whilst the sunlight stole from the windows gay New tinting for robe and plume.

��Society whispered in well-bred tones,

And looked, as they came apace, At each bidden guest.

Now a dowager

In jewels and old point lace, And robing of lavender (solemn hue

That hints at the purple mist Of the border province twixt youth and age

By the sunset shadows kissed).

�� �