And tantalized by ineffectual aid:

She could not thus a beggar’s lot endure;

She wanted something permanent and sure:

If they were friends, then equal be their lot,

And she were free to speak if they were not.”

Despair and terror seized the Wife, to find

The artful workings of a vulgar mind:

Money she had not, but the hint of dress

Taught her new bribes, new terrors to redress;

She with such feeling then described her woes