Their voices crept away. I heard no more
As I crossed the garden and knocked at the door.
I waited, then knocked louder than before,
And thrice, and still in vain. So on the grass
I stepped, and tap-tapped on the rainy glass.
Then did a girl without turning towards me pass
From the room. I heard the heavy barred door creak,
And a voice entreating from the doorway speak,
"Will you come this way?"—a voice childlike and quick.
The way was dark. I followed her white frock,
Past the now-chiming, sweet-tongued unseen clock,
Into the room. One figure like a rock
Draped in an unstarred night—his mother—bowed
Unrising and unspeaking. His aunt stood
And took my hand, murmuring, "So good, so good!"
Never such quiet people had I known.
Voices they scarcely needed, they had grown
To talk less by the word than muted tone.
"We'll soon have tea," the girl said. "Please sit here."
She pushed a heavy low deep-seated chair
I knew at once was his; and I sat there.
I could not look at them. It seemed I made
Noise in that quietness. I was afraid
To look or speak until the aunt's voice said,
"You were his friend." And that "You were!" awoke
My sense, and nervousness found voice and spoke
Of what he had been, until a bullet broke
A too-brief friendship. The rock-like mother kept
Night still around her. The aunt silently wept,
And the girl into the screen's low shadow stept.