My lord was pale with inward strife,
  And Nell was pale with pride;
My lord gazed long on pale Maude Clare
  Or ever he kissed the bride.

’Lo, I have brought my gift, my lord,
  Have brought my gift,’ she said: 
’To bless the hearth, to bless the board,
  To bless the marriage-bed. 20

’Here’s my half of the golden chain
  You wore about your neck,
That day we waded ankle-deep
  For lilies in the beck: 

’Here’s my half of the faded leaves
  We plucked from budding bough,
With feet amongst the lily leaves,—­
  The lilies are budding now.’

He strove to match her scorn with scorn,
  He faltered in his place:  30
‘Lady,’ he said,—­’Maude Clare,’ he said,—­
  ’Maude Clare:’—­and hid his face.

She turn’d to Nell:  ’My Lady Nell,
  I have a gift for you;
Though, were it fruit, the bloom were gone,
  Or, were it flowers, the dew.

’Take my share of a fickle heart,
  Mine of a paltry love: 
Take it or leave it as you will,
  I wash my hands thereof.’ 40

‘And what you leave,’ said Nell, ’I’ll take,
  And what you spurn, I’ll wear;
For he’s my lord for better and worse,
  And him I love, Maude Clare.

’Yea, though you’re taller by the head,
  More wise, and much more fair;
I’ll love him till he loves me best,
  Me best of all, Maude Clare.’

ECHO

Come to me in the silence of the night;
  Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
  As sunlight on a stream;
    Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.

Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
  Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
  Where thirsting longing eyes 10
    Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.

Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
  My very life again though cold in death: 
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
  Pulse for pulse, breath for breath: 
    Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago!

MY SECRET

I tell my secret?  No indeed, not I: 
Perhaps some day, who knows? 
But not to-day; it froze, and blows, and snows,
And you’re too curious:  fie! 
You want to hear it? well: 
Only, my secret’s mine, and I won’t tell.