XLII

“And though ’twas cruel hard of me to try
  Thy faithful heart with such a fearful test,
Yet now thou canst be happy, sweet, as I
  Am wondrous happy in thy truth confessed. 
To haggard death indeed thou needst not fly
  To find the softness of thy lady’s breast;
For such a gift was never death’s to give,
But thou shalt have me for thy love, and live.

XLIII

“Dost see these cheeks, my Nino? they’re so thin,
  Not round and soft, as when thou touched them last: 
So long with bitter rage they pent me in,
  Like some poor thief in lonely dungeons cast;
Only this night through every bolt and gin
  By cunning stealth I wrought my way at last. 
Straight to thine heart I fled, unfaltering,
Like homeward pigeon with uncaged wing.

XLIV

“Nay, Nino, kneel not; let me hear thee speak. 
  We must not tarry long; the dawn is nigh.” 
So rises he, for very gladness weak;
  But half in fear that yet the dream may fly,
He touches mutely mouth and brow and cheek;
  Till in his ear she ’gins to plead and sigh: 
“Dear love, forgive me for that cruel tale,
That stung thine heart and made thy lips so pale.”

XLV

And so he folds her softly with quick sighs,
  And both with murmurs warm and musical
Talk and retalk, with dim or smiling eyes,
  Of old delights and sweeter days to fall: 
And yet not long, for, ere the starlit skies,
  Grow pale above the city’s eastern wall,
They rise, with lips and happy hands withdrawn,
And pass out softly into the dawn.

XLVI

For Nino knows the captain of a ship,
  The friend of many journeys, who may be
This very morn will let his cables slip
  For the warm coast of Sicily. 
There in Palermo, at the harbour’s lip,
  A brother lives, of tried fidelity: 
So to the quays by hidden ways they wend
In the pale morn, nor do they miss their friend.

XLVII

And ere the shadow off another night
  Hath darkened Pisa, many a foe shall stray
Through Nino’s home, with eyes malignly bright
  In wolfish quest, but shall not find his prey: 
The while those lovers in their white-winged flight
  Shall see far out upon the twilight grey,
Behind, the glimmer of the sea, before,
The dusky outlines of a kindlier shore.

THE CHILD’S MUSIC LESSON

Why weep ye in your innocent toil at all? 
  Sweet little hands, why halt and tremble so? 
Full many a wrong note falls, but let it fall! 
  Each note to me is like a golden glow;
Each broken cadence like a mourning call;
  Nay, clear and smooth I would not have you go,
Soft little hands, upon the curtained threshold set
Of this long life of labour, and unrestful fret.