Page:Aurora Leigh a Poem.djvu/182

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AURORA LEIGH.
To escape the anguish of his eyes, and askedAs low as when you speak to mourners newOf those they cannot bear yet to call dead,If Marian had as much as named to himA certain Rose, an early friend of hers,A ruined creature.''Never.'—Starting upHe strode from side to side about the room,Most like some prisoned lion sprung awake,Who has felt the desert sting him through his dreams.'What was I to her, that she should tell me aught?A friend! Was I a friend? I see all clear.Such devils would pull angels out of heaven,Provided they could reach them; 'tis their pride;And that's the odds 'twixt soul and body-plague!The veriest slave who drops in Cairo's street,Cries, 'Stand off from me,' to the passengers;While these blotched souls are eager to infect,And blow their bad breath in a sister's faceAs if they got some ease by it.'I broke through.'Some natures catch no plagues. I've read of babesFound whole and sleeping by the spotted breastOf one a full day dead. I hold it true,As I'm a woman and know womanhood,That Marian Erle, however lured from place,Deceived in way, keeps pure in aim and heart,As snow that's drifted from the garden-bankTo the open road.''Twas hard to hear him laugh.
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