Page:Late lyrics and earlier, with many other verses (IA latelyricsearlie00hardiala).pdf/107

Rh When she was the charm of the idle town, And he the pick of the club-fire set. . . . His eyes grew wet,

And he stretched his arms: "Stay—rest!—" He cried. “Abide with me so, my own!" But his arms closed in on his hard bare breast; She had vanished with all he had looked upon Of her beauty: gone.

He clothed, and drew downstairs, But she was not in the house, he found; And he passed out under the leafy pairs Of the avenue elms, and searched around To the park-pale bound.

He mounted, and rode till night To the city to which she had long withdrawn, The vision he bore all day in his sight Being her young self as pondered on In the dim of dawn.

"—The lady here long ago— Is she now here?—young—or such age as she is?"