Page:Enoch Arden, etc - Tennyson - 1864.djvu/62

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ENOCH ARDEN.
Then may she learn I lov’d her to the last.’He call’d aloud for Miriam Lane and said‘Woman, I have a secret—only swear,Before I tell you—swear upon the bookNot to reveal it, till you see me dead.’‘Dead,’ clamour’d the good woman, ‘hear him talk!I warrant, man, that we shall bring you round.’‘Swear’ added Enoch sternly ‘on the book.’And on the book, half-frighted, Miriam swore.Then Enoch rolling his gray eyes upon her,‘Did you know Enoch Arden of this town?’‘Know him?’ she said ‘I knew him far away.Ay, ay, I mind him coming down the street;Held his head high, and cared for no man, he.’Slowly and sadly Enoch answer’d her;‘His head is low, and no man cares for him.I think I have not three days more to live;I am the man.’ At which the woman gaveA half-incredulous, half-hysterical cry.‘You Arden, you! nay,—sure he was a foot
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