IF THIS WERE SO.

O Love, if I could see you standing here,

I, to whom the memory of a scene—

This lane, tree-shadowed, with the summer’s light

Falling in golden showers, the boughs between,

Upon your upturned face—shines out as clear,

Against the background dark of many a year,

As yonder solitary starlet bright

Gleams on the storm-clad bosom of the night.

If this were so—if you should come to me

With your calm, angel face, framed in with gold,

And lay your hand in mine as long ago

You laid it coldly, would the love untold

Hidden within my heart, set my lips free

To speak of it and know the certainty

Of love crowned or rejected—yes or no?

O Love, I could not speak if this were so.

But if you came to meet me in the lane

With footsteps swifter than you used of yore—

And if your eyes grew brighter, dear, as though

They gladdened at my coming back once more—

If, when I held your little hand again,

Your calmness grew less still, then not in vain

My heart would strive to speak, for it would know

What words to utter, Love, if this were so!

Kate Mellersh.

The Conductor of Chambers’s Journal begs to direct the attention of Contributors to the following notice:

1st. All communications should be addressed to the ‘Editor, 339 High Street, Edinburgh.’

2d. For its return in case of ineligibility, postage-stamps should accompany every manuscript.

3d. To secure their safe return if ineligible, All Manuscripts, whether accompanied by a letter of advice or otherwise, should have the writer’s Name and Address written upon them IN FULL.

4th. Offerings of Verse should invariably be accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope.

If the above rules are complied with, the Editor will do his best to insure the safe return of ineligible papers.

Printed and Published by W. & R. Chambers, 47 Paternoster Row, London, and 339 High Street, Edinburgh.

[Transcriber’s note—the following changes have been made to this text.

Page 693: Villiars to Villiers—“down Villiers Street”.]