She speaks.

"I have a story to relate.

There was a parish-priest, my father knew,

Elderly, poor: I used to pity him

Before I learned what woes are pity-worth.

Elderly was grown old now, scanty means

Were straitening fast to poverty, beside

The ailments which await in such a case.

Limited every way, a perfect man

Within the bounds built up and up since birth