THE STAR DREAMER

BOOK IV

Haunted by the starry head

Of her whose gentle will has changed my faith

And made my life a perfumed altar flame.

Tennyson (Maud)

CHAPTER I
AH ME, THE MIGHT-HAVE-BEEN!

I cry to vacant chairs and widowed walls,

My house is left unto me desolate.

—Tennyson (Aylmer’s Field).