Page:Ballads of a Bohemian.djvu/96

94 Her little head just topped the window-sill; She even mounted on a stool, maybe; She pressed against the pane, as children will, And watched us playing, oh so wistfully! And then I missed her for a month or more, And idly thought: “She’s gone away, no doubt,” Until a hearse drew up beside the door… I saw a tiny coffin carried out.

And after that, towards dusk I’d often see Behind the blind another face that looked: Eyes of a young wife watching anxiously, Then rushing back to where her dinner cooked. She often gulped it down alone, I fear, Within her heart the sadness of despair. For near to midnight I would vaguely hear A lurching step, a stumbling on the stair.

These little dramas of the common day! A man weak-willed and fore-ordained to fail… The window’s empty now, they’ve gone away, And yonder, see, their furniture’s for sale. To all the world their door is open wide, And round and round the bargain-hunters roam, And peer and gloat, like vultures avid-eyed, Above the corpse of what was once a home.

So reverent I go from room to room, And see the patient care, the tender touch,