I picture her with sorrowful vague eyes,

Illumed with such strange gleams of inner light

As linger in the drift of London skies

Ere twilight turns to night.

I know not; I conjecture. 'Twas a girl

That with her own most gentle desperate hand

From out God's mystic setting plucked life's pearl--

'Tis hard to understand.

So precious life is! Even to the old

The hours are as a miser's coins, and she--