Page:Poems Cromwell.djvu/127

 Gladys and Dorothea Cromwell were so essentially one that any account of either must include the other. Neither ever used the singular pronoun, and those who knew them fairly well often doubted to which sister they were speaking. Indeed when it was suggested to Gladys that "Gates of Utterance" should be dedicated to Dorothea, she answered that poets were not in the habit of dedicating their verse to themselves. So in writing even a brief sketch it is necessary to think of them as they were, an identity expressed in two terms. They were born in November, 1885, and inherited possessions, talents, and an exquisite beauty strangely poignant because in the twin sisters the charm seemed more than doubled. There are a few men and women with whom one feels a sense of spiritual mystery: one walks with them always on the road to Emmaus. It was true of these two They found their home in the unseen. In the outer, material world they existed only by an effort that cost them much, for they moved as spirits, untouched by crude desires; bending with a shy longing to meet human needs; searching for some solution that should justify their