The children ’twas not possible to see.

Back to the office at this early day

To see him come, old-looking thus and grey,

His comrades wondered, wondered too to see

How dire a passion for his work had he,

How in a garret too he lived alone;

So cold a husband, cold a father grown.

In a green lane beside her mother’s home,

Where in old days they had been used to roam,

His wife had met him on the appointed day,