Strange, is it not? Of all the Husbands who
Before me passed this Door of Trouble through
Not One has left a word of good Advice,
Nor e'en suggested what is Best to do.
XXII
My Friends can't help me, yet they laugh to Scorn
My downcast looks, and at the way I Mourn.
They do not know the Anguish of my Soul,
Bereft of Wife—unhappy—and forlorn.
XXIII
But this I know, whether the one True Light
Kindle to Love, or wrath consume me quite,
I'd rather have my former Happiness,
Than to Possess the Whole great World outright.
XXIV
I oft' attempt to show Wife where 'twill Lead.
She gets her Book, and says I must take Heed
That—"The first Morning of Creation wrote
What the last Dawn of reckoning shall Read."