Declaration

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2><SPAN name="THE_DECLARATION" id="THE_DECLARATION"></SPAN>THE DECLARATION.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">'Twas late, and the gay company was gone,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And light lay soft on the deserted room<br/></span> <span class="i0">From alabaster vases, and a scent<br/></span> <span class="i0">Of orange leaves, and sweet verbena came<br/></span> <span class="i0">Through the unshutter'd window on the air,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And the rich pictures with their dark old tints<br/></span> <span class="i0">Hung like a twilight landscape, and all things<br/></span> <span class="i0">Seem'd hush'd into a slumber. Isabel,<br/></span> <span class="i0">The dark eyed, spiritual Isabel<br/></span> <span class="i0">Was leaning on her harp, and I had staid<br/></span> <span class="i0">To whisper what I could not when the crowd<br/></span> <span class="i0">Hung on her look like worshippers. I knelt,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And with the fervor of a lip unused<br/></span> <span class="i0">To the cool breath of reason, told my love.<br/></span> <span class="i0">There was no answer, and I took the hand<br/></span> <span class="i0">That rested on the strings, and pressed a kiss<br/></span> <span class="i0">Upon it unforbidden&mdash;and again<br/></span> <span class="i0">Besought her, that this silent evidence<br/></span> <span class="i0">That I was not indifferent to her heart,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Might have the seal of one sweet syllable.<br/></span> <span class="i0">I kissed the small white fingers as I spoke,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And she withdrew them gently, and upraised<br/></span> <span class="i0">Her forehead from its resting place, and looked<br/></span> <span class="i0">Earnestly on me&mdash;She had been asleep!<br/></span></div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />