Page:Wessex poems and other verses (IA wessexpoemsother00hard).pdf/144

 ('Twas hard to repress my heart-heavings And new ecstasy.)

"She wedded."—"Ah!"—"Wedded beneath her— She keeps the stage-hostel Ten miles hence, beside the great Highway The famed Lions-Three.

"Her spouse was her lackey—no option 'Twixt wedlock and worse things; A lapse over-sad for a lady Of her pedigree!"

I shuddered, said nothing, and wandered To shades of green laurel: Too ghastly had grown those first tidings So brightsome of blee!

For, on my ride hither, I'd halted Awhile at the Lions, And her—her whose name had once opened My heart as a key—