I never thought it meant much; for we talk’d

Of all things, almost; and, in play, at times,

Would I indulge in hopes that he was right.

Once too, far up in clouds, my fancy feign’d

To question if her friends, or she, would wish

My calling to be hers. I scarce had dream’d

Of Elbert’s giving weight to whims like this.

Yet after that I mark’d him much with Grace;

But naught surmised until, one time, he said:

“All right, my Norman; I have talk’d with her;