That lock’d her secret—but had spied her soul!—
And back to right it brought me. “Pardon, Grace,”
I breathed, then hush’d: With strange and holy power,
New-welling love seem’d fountain’d in my heart,
And shower’d and stream’d through all my thrilling veins;
And then I check’d it. She was not for me,
Alas, unworthy! She was Elbert’s—all!
“Grace,” breathed I, “you are doubly now my friend,
And doubly dear, since Elbert’s dearest friend;
Thank Heaven that you have loved so true a man.