Page:Francesca Carrara 2.pdf/227

224 down to the very dust. Falsehood, disappointment, and neglect, form the majority of chances; and even if fortunate—fortunate in requited faithfulness and a sheltered home—still the visionary hour of youth is gone by. There are duties instead of dreams—romance exhausts itself—and the imaginative is merged in the common-place. The pale green returns not to the leaf, the delicate red to the flower, and, still less, its early poetry to the heart.