After the last meeting; the day following.

I seem to see her still; to see That dim blue room. Her perfume comes From lavender folds draped dreamily— One blossom of brocaded blooms— Some stuff of orient looms.

I seem to hear her speak; and back Where lies the sun on books and piles Of porcelain and bric-a-brac, A tall clock ticks above the tiles, Where Love's framed profile smiles.

I hear her say, "Ah, had I known!— I suffer too for what has been— For what must be."—A wild ache shone In her sad eyes that seemed to lean On something far, unseen.

And as in sleep my own self seems Outside my suffering self.—I flush 'Twixt facts and undetermined dreams, And wait as silent as that hush Of lilac light and plush.

Smiling, but suffering, I feel, Beneath that face, so sweet and sad, In those pale temples, thoughts like steel Pierce burningly.—I had gone mad Had I once deemed her glad.—

Unconsciously, with eyes that yearn To look beyond the present far For some faint future hope, I turn— Above her garden, day's fierce star, Vermilion at the window bar,

Sank sullenly—like love's own sun— An omen of our future life.— And then the memory of one Rich day she'd said she'd be my wife Set heart and brain at strife.

Again amid the heavy hues, Soft crimson, seal, and satiny gold Of flowers there, I stood 'mid dews With her; deep in her garden old, While sunset fires uprolled.

And now.... It can not be! and yet To feel 'tis so!—In heart and brain To know 'tis so!—while warm and wet I seem to smell those scents again, Verbena-scents and rain.

I turn, in hope she'll bid me stay. Again her cameo beauty mark Set in that smile.—She turns away. No word of love! not even a spark Of hope to cheer the dark!

That sepia sketch—conceive it so— A jaunty head with mouth and eyes Tragic beneath a rose-chapeau, Silk-masked, unmasking—it denies The look we half surmise,

We know is there. 'Tis thus we read The true beneath the false; perceive The smile that hides the ache.—Indeed! Whose soul unmasks?... Not mine!—I grieve,— Oh God!—but laugh and leave....