Page:Aurora Leigh a Poem.djvu/285

Rh Who, having fallen through overloads, stands up To let them charge him with another pack.

‘A few months, so. My mistress, young and light, Was easy with me, less for kindness than Because she led, herself, an easy time Betwixt her lover and her looking-glass, Scarce knowing which way she was praised the most. She felt so pretty and so pleased all day She could not take the trouble to be cross, But sometimes, as I stooped to tie her shoe, Would tap me softly with her slender foot Still restless with the last night’s dancing in’t, And say ‘Fie, pale-face! are you English girls ‘All grave and silent? mass-book still, and Lent? ‘And first-communion colours on your cheeks, ‘Worn past the time for’t? little fool, be gay!’ At which she vanished, like a fairy, through A gap of silver laughter. ‘Came an hour When all went otherwise. She did not speak, But clenched her brows, and clipped me with her eyes As if a viper with a pair of tongs, Too far for any touch, yet near enough To view the writhing creature,—then at last, ‘Stand still there, in the holy Virgin’s name, ‘Thou Marian; thou‘rt no reputable girl, ‘Although sufficient dull for twenty saints! ‘I think thou mock’st me and my house,’ she said; ‘Confess thou’lt be a mother in a month,