“Concert this very evening! Do not write!
“I am ever at the window of my room
“Over the terrace, at the Ave. Come!”
To let her smile loose. “So, you gave my line
“To the merry lady?” “She kissed off the wax,
“And put what paper was not kissed away,
“In her bosom to go burn: but merry, no!
“She wept all night when evening brought no friend, (580)
“Alone, the unkind missive at her breast;
“Thus Philomel, the thorn at her breast too,
“Sings” … “Writes this second letter?” “Even so!
“Then she may peep at vespers forth?”—“What risk
“Do we run o’ the husband?”—“Ah,—no risk at all!
“He is more stupid even than jealous. Ah—
“That was the reason? Why, the man’s away!
“Beside, his bugbear is that friend of yours,
“Fat little Canon Conti. He fears him—
“How should he dream of you? I told you truth— (590)
“He goes to the villa at Vittiano—’tis
“The time when Spring-sap rises in the vine—
“Spends the night there. And then his wife’s a child,
“Does he think a child outwits him? A mere child:
“Yet so full grown, a dish for any duke.
“Don’t quarrel longer with such cates, but come!”
“I am a priest: and you are wedded wife,
“Whatever kind of brute your husband prove.
“I have scruples, in short. Yet should you really show
“Sign at the window … but nay, best be good! (601)
“My thoughts are elsewhere.”—“Take her that!”
“Let the incarnate meanness, cheat and spy,
“Mean to the marrow of him, make his heart
“His food, anticipate hell’s worm once more!
“Let him watch shivering at the window—ay,
“And let this hybrid, this his light-of-love
“And lackey-of-lies,—a sage economy,—
“Paid with embracings for the rank brass coin,— (610)
“Let her report and make him chuckle o’er
“The break-down of my resolution now,
“And lour at disappointment in good time!
“—So tantalise and so enrage by turns,
“Until the two fall each on the other like
“Two famished spiders, as the coveted fly
“That toys long, leaves their net and them at last!”
And so the missives followed thick and fast
For a month, say,—I still came at every turn
On the soft sly adder, endlong ’neath my tread. (620)
I was met i’ the street, made sign to in the church,
A slip was found i’ the door-sill, scribbled word
’Twixt page and page o’ the prayer-book in my piece:
A crumpled thing dropped even before my feet,
Pushed through the blind, above the terrace-rail,
As I passed, by day, the very window once.
And ever from corners would be peering up
The messenger, with the self-same demand
“Obdurate still, no flesh but adamant?
“Nothing to cure the wound, assuage the throe (630)
“O’ the sweetest lamb that ever loved a bear?”
And ever my one answer in one tone—
“Go your ways, temptress! Let a priest read, pray,
“Unplagued of vain talk, visions not for him!
“In the end, you’ll have your will and ruin me!”
“You have gained little by timidity.
“My husband has found out my love at length,
“Sees cousin Conti was the stalking-horse,
“And you the game he covered, poor fat soul! (640)
“My husband is a formidable foe,
“Will stick at nothing to destroy you. Stand
“Prepared, or better, run till you reach Rome!
“I bade you visit me, when the last place
“My tyrant would have turned suspicious at,
“Or cared to seek you in, was … why say, where?
“But now all’s changed: beside, the season’s past
“At the villa,—wants the master’s eye no more.
“Anyhow, I beseech you, stay away
“From the window! He might well be posted there.” (650)
“My curiosity, who am but man.
“Tell him he owns the palace, not the street
“Under—that’s his and yours and mine alike.
“If it should please me pad the path this eve,
“Guido will have two troubles, first to get
“Into a rage and then get out again.
“Be cautious, though: at the Ave!”
When I stood question here and reached this point (660)
O’ the narrative,—search notes and see and say
If some one did not interpose with smile
And sneer, “And prithee why so confident
“That the husband must, of all needs, not the wife,
“Fabricate thus,—what if the lady loved?
“What if she wrote the letters?”
I told you there’s a picture in our church.
Well, if a low-browed verger sidled up
Bringing me, like a blotch, on his prod’s point, (670)
A transfixed scorpion, let the reptile writhe,
And then said, “See a
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