They did not appear to wish to intrude;
  They did not attempt to frighten me now;
  They did not push by me; they were not rude;—­
  But somehow they enter’d—­I know not how.

  ’It’s no use trying to ’ide ‘im, my dear,’
  Said one, in a really fatherly way;
  ’In course we knows that the gen’leman’s ’ere;
  And till he turns up we shall ‘ave to stay.’

  ’The gentleman’s here? but no one has come;
  And no one can come—­it is much too late. 
  Mr. Vane is out—­he will soon be home;
  But I really must ask you not to wait.’

  The man laid a finger against his nose;
  With a horrible slyness look’d at me: 
  ’We understands all that ’ere, I suppose;
  But you’d better come to terms,’ said he.

  I stared at the man with my vacant eyes,
  That dreamily question’d him how he dared? 
  And suddenly saw, with extreme surprise,
  It was a policeman at whom I stared.

  The five of us stood in the pleasant hall;
  And four were policemen, and one was I;
  And Harry had never come home at all;
  And the clock struck one with a gasping sigh.

  My heart grew cold, and my courage ran down;
  I pinch’d my finger—­I tried not to scream—­
  I felt like a creature about to drown,
  And I cried aloud ‘It MUST be a dream!’
  I angrily spoke,—­and I spoke out loud;
  I knew ’twas a dream and nothing in it;
  I spurn’d the dream with a gesture proud,
  And ORDERED myself to wake that minute.

  Of course, I just fell asleep where I sat,
  And this is a dream—­yes I know it is—­
  But O it is stranger than dreaming, that
  Harry has not waken’d me with a kiss!

  I looked at the men, who are searching round,
  And taking a note of all they can find;
  Examining ceiling and walls and ground,—­
  —­I am surely going out of my mind!

  I said to myself in a coaxing way—­
  ’I am wide awake, and he has come back;
  Harry is acting a sort of a play: 
  He has dress’d himself up, and so has Jack.’

  A glance or a signal dispers’d the men: 
  Two went upstairs, and another below;
  The leader sat down in the hall; and then—­
  What am I to do?  Where am I to go?

  I rush’d to the door, and I flung it wide—­
  A frighten’d creature can anything dare—­
  And I saw the darkness that lay outside,
  And I heard the silence—­and nothing was there.

  ‘Harry!  Harry!  Harry!’ was all my cry,
  As I stood alone at the open door;
  And the night heard me—­and so did the sky,
  And the wind and the earth—­and nothing more.

  I turn’d from the door with a sad surprise: 
  I could call for my love and call in vain;
  And I met that horrid policeman’s eyes,
  Keenly and quietly watching my pain.