Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/181

 THE RANDALL FAMILY 1 73

thought I was waiting for him to come out, but I knew better than he why I was waiting there.

I felt like King Lear, when he held the feather to the lips of Cordelia and exclaimed, " She lives ! " and I thought, as he, "Were it but so, it were a chance that would redeem all sorrows that ever I have felt." " Oh, thou wilt come no more, never, never, never, never, never!" Enough — I shall lose my composure again. I loved him, I understood him. He knew that I loved him. He knew that I understood him. And I felt that he loved and understood me, and I wished that you were with me, for I said, " I might then weep with them that could weep." Your father was with us most of the week, and was a great comfort to me, and I hope and trust I was also a comfort to him.

And now, since our friend has left us to tread the wine- press alone, and exists for us only in the Kingdom of Love, we must do something to adorn his memory, and present to it some visible symbol of our unforgetfulness. Suppose, then, that I dedicate to him my volume of " The Delights," which lies mostly written or in outline. I would include in it the poem to the memory of your grandfather, and prelude it with another to himself. There would then be left " The Seasons " for you. But I am so shattered by this event that I may likely not work for some months.

Still, a more peaceful time will come at last, when sor- row seen in perspective shall blend in the horizon of time with objects less mournful, colors less vivid, and an atmos- phere made softer by distance. You and I are still left to each other, but let us share nothing that was Stanley's ; let us commit to him in the grave the affections that were his, as anciently men buried their precious jewels with their deceased friends.

�� �