Collected Works (Vol. II)

74 ALICE: AN ADULTERY Cold and inténse ; the one-and-twentieth day They drew my life out, one exceeding stress, Volcanic anguish !—Here’s the strange €XCESS: I called, ere waking, on the name Eheteh ! Solve me the riddle of the dream who can ! That night I sought a new toy for a lure, And she would not: but knew how hard to endure | Is love like ours, the love of purity. So she: “ Dispute it like a man!” and I: “* But I must also feel it as a man!” Note. Eheieh is the Hebrew for ‘‘I] am that Iam.” Its numerical value is 21. I was not aware at the time that this was the 21st day.— AUTHOR.! THE TWENTY-SECOND DAY. ‘*T’ll have her: but I will not keep her long.” Richard Ill, IT was impossible that she should come Over the leagues of summer-coloured sea Alone with love and laughter. and tears and me To the toy land ? of the chrysanthemum, Where. all the flowers lack scent, the birds are dumb, The fruits are tasteless : jewelled lea And all the many-leavéd greenery Is dwarf: French gem-work on a baby’s thumb. where the The Yankee God frowned also on the plan. We had enough, no more. But I insist, Still thinking I was master of my heart: Saying, ‘ Another month to be a man, Another month to kiss her and be kissed, And then—all time to Magic and to Art!” 1 That is, the imaginary author. 2 Japan. 3 The dollar. THE TWENTY-THIRD DAY. ‘* He has strangled His language in his tears.” K. Hen, VII. My comedy has changed its blithe aspect To bitterest face of tragedy ; she said: ‘*Alas! O soul of mine! I am surely dead, Seeing my life is by a‘serpent wrecked Of sore disease: but spare me, and reflect That in few months I die: but were I * wed— O lover! O desire discomfited ! I die at once: consider, and elect.” How could I otherwise than spare my wife? With tender lips and fingers one strong kiss Swooned slave-wise even before the gate of bliss, No more: for I rose up and cursed my life, Hating the God that made us to dissever So soon so sweet a love, and that for ever, Ut, Canc. sublatum iri dixisse. Vae Capri- corno!! (Author's Note.) THE TWENTY-FOURTH DAY. ‘She having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial which he is most glad to receive,” Measure for Measure. OF course I might have known it was a lie. Nathless, I wept all morning and de- spaired. Nothing for any life of earth I cared, Neither for heaven: I railed against the sky, 1 This intentionally obscure note means that she said she had cancer. Now Capricorn; the opposite to Cancer in the Zodiac, is called ‘* the symbol of gross passion.”