Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/53

ALICE OF MONMOUTH 5

Gazing on such a group as this, folds of the curtain drop,

Hiding the grandsire's form; and the wheels of the sliding picture stop.

Gone, that stout old Hendrick, at last! and from miles around they came,—

Farmer, and squire, and whispering youths, recalling his manhood's fame.

Dead: and the Van Ghelt manor closed, and the homestead acres leased;

For their owner had moved more near the town, where his daily tasks increased,

Choosing a home on the blue Passaic, whence the Newark spires and lights

Were seen, and over the salt sea-marsh the shadows of Bergen Heights.

Back and forth from his city work, the lawyer, day by day,

With the press of eager and toiling men, followed his wonted way;

And Hugh,—he dallied with life at home, tending the garden and grounds;

But the mansion longed for a woman's voice to soften its lonely sounds.

"Hugh," said Hermann Van Ghelt, at length, "choose for yourself a wife,

Comely, and good, and of birth to match the mother who gave you life.

No words of woman have charmed my ear since last I heard her voice;

And of fairest and proudest maids her son should make a worthy choice." 23