But now, grown rich and happy, from the door
You thrust a bosom-friend, despised and poor;
That child alive, its mother might have known
The hard, ungrateful spirit she had shown.”
Here paused the Guest, and Anna cried at length -
“You try me, cruel friend! beyond my strength;
Would I had been beside my infant laid,
Where none would vex me, threaten, or upbraid!”
In Anna’s looks the Friend beheld despair;
Her speech she soften’d, and composed her air;