“Good-night,” the last kiss, “and God bless you, my dear.”

So, she was gone, she who had been so near,

So breathing-warm—soft mouth and hands and hair—

A moment since. Had she been really there,

Close at his side, and had he kissed her? It seemed

Unlikely as something somebody else had dreamed

And talked about at breakfast, being a bore:

Improbable, unsubstantial, dim, yet more

Real than the rest of life; real as the blaze

Of a sudden-seen picture, as the lightning phrase