Page:Enoch Arden, etc - Tennyson - 1864.djvu/120

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SEA DREAMS.
 ‘No trifle,’ groan’d the husband; ‘yesterdayI met him suddenly in the street, and ask’dThat which I ask’d the woman in my dream.Like her, he shook his head. “Show me the books!”He dodged me with a long and loose account.“The books, the books!” but he, he could not wait,Bound on a matter he of life and death:When the great Books (see Daniel seven and ten)Were open’d, I should find he meant me well;And then began to bloat himself, and oozeAll over with the fat affectionate smileThat makes the widow lean. “My dearest friend,Have faith, have faith! We live by faith,” said he;“And all things work together for the goodOf those”—it makes me sick to quote him—lastGript my hand hard, and with God-bless-you went.I stood like one that had received a blow:I found a hard friend in his loose accounts,A loose one in the hard grip of his hand,A curse in his God-bless-you: then my eyes
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