“Even so was mine,” the woman said.

Then whispered Mary: “Tell me, thou,

Of thine.” And she:

“Oh, mine was rosy as a bough

Blooming with roses, sent, somehow,

To bloom for me!

His balmy fingers left a thrill

Within my breast that warms me still.”

Then gazed she down some wilder, darker hour,

And said—when Mary questioned, knowing not: