Page:Songs of the Road Doyle.djvu/69

Rh He claimed with grasping gestures

Each thing of price he saw,

Watches and rings and vestures,

His will the only law.

In vain had I commanded,

In vain I struggled still,

Servants and wife were banded

To do the stranger's will.

And then in deep dejection

It came to me one day,

That my own wife's affection

Had been beguiled away.

Our love had known no danger,

So certain had it been!

And now to think a stranger

Should dare to step between.