Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/229

Rh And little she knew the arms that embraced

Had cloven a man from the brow to the waist:

And little she knew that the loving lips

Had ordered a quivering life's eclipse,

And the eye that lit at her lightest breath

Had glared unawed in the Gates of Death.

(For these be matters a man would hide,

As a general rule, from an innocent Bride.)

And little the Captain thought of the past,

And, of all men, Babu Harendra last.

But slow, in the sludge of the Kathun road,

The Government Bullock Train toted its load.

Speckless and spotless and shining with ghee,

In the rearmost cart sat the Babu-jee.

And ever a phantom before him fled

Of a scowling Boh with a silver head.

Then the lead-cart stuck, though the coolies slaved,

And the cartmen flogged and the escort raved;