Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

Lady Middleton, a friend of old days in Adelaide and now in England, reminded me of these lines.


Yet in my hid soul must a voice reply

Which knows not which may seem the viler gain,

To sleep for ever or be born again.

The blank repose or drear eternity.

A solitary thing it were to die