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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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241 On sped my rainbow, fast as light; I flew as in a dream; For glorious rose upon my sight That child of Shower and Gleam. Still bright on clouds of suffering dim Shines that soft, solemn joy; Nor care I now, how dense and grim Disasters gather nigh. I care not in this moment sweet, Though all I have rushed o’er Should come on pinion, strong and fleet, Proclaiming vengeance sore: Though haughty Hate should strike me down, Right, bar approach to me, And grinding Might, with furious frown, Swear endless enmity. My love has placed her little hand With noble faith in mine, And vowed that wedlock’s sacred band Our nature shall entwine. My love has sworn, with sealing kiss, With me to live-to die; I have at last my nameless bliss: As I love-loved am I!’ He rose and came towards me, and I saw his face all kindled, and his full falcon-eye flashing, and tenderness and passion in every lineament. I quailed momentarily-then I rallied. Soft scene, daring demonstration, I would not have; and I stood in peril of both: a weapon of defence must be prepared-I whetted my tongue: as he reached me, I asked with asperity, ‘whom he was going to marry now?’ ‘That was a strange question to be put by his darling Jane.’ ‘Indeed! I considered it a very natural and necessary one: he had talked of his future wife dying with him. What did he mean by such a pagan idea? I had no intention of dying with him-he might depend on that.’ ‘Oh, all he longed, all he prayed for, was that I might live with him! Death was not for such as I.’ ‘Indeed it was: I had as good a right to die when my time came as he had: but I should bide that time, and not be hurried away in a suttee.’ ‘Would I forgive him for the selfish idea, and prove my pardon by a reconciling kiss?’ ‘No: I would rather be excused.’ Here I heard myself apostrophised as a ‘hard little thing’; and it was added, ‘any other woman would have been melted to marrow at hearing such stanzas crooned in her praise.’ I assured him I was naturally hard-very flinty, and that he would often find me so; and that, moreover, I was determined to show him divers rugged points in my character before the ensuing four weeks elapsed: he should know fully what sort of a bargain he had made, while there was yet time to rescind it. ‘Would I be quiet and talk rationally?’ ‘I would be quiet if he liked, and as to talking rationally, I flattered myself I was doing that now.’ He fretted, pished, and pshawed. ‘Very good,’ I thought; ‘you may fume and fidget as you please: but this is the best plan to pursue with you, I am certain. I like you more than I can say; but I’ll not sink into a bathos of sentiment: and with this needle of repartee I’ll keep you from the edge of the gulf too; and, moreover, |
