Note 41 — V.

"In my heart are many chambers through which I wander free; Some are furnished, some are empty, some are sombre, some are light; Some are open to all comers, and of some I keep the key, And I enter in the stillness of the night. "But there's one I never enter—it is closed to even me! Only once its door was opened, and it shut for evermore; And though sounds of many voices gather round it like a sea, It is silent, ever silent, as the shore. "In that chamber, long ago, my love's casket was concealed, And the jewel that it sheltered I knew only one could win: And my soul foreboded sorrow, should that jewel be revealed, And I almost hoped that none might enter in. "Yet day and night I lingered by that fatal chamber door, Till—she came at last my darling one, of all the earth my own; And she entered—then she vanished with my jewel which she wore; And the door was closed—and I was left alone. "She gave me back no jewel, but the spirit of her eyes Shone with tenderness a moment, as she closed that chamber door, And the memory of that moment is all I have to prize— But that, at least, is mine for evermore. "Was she conscious, when she took it, that the jewel was my love? Did she think it but a bauble she might wear or toss aside? I know not, I accuse not, but I hope that it may prove A blessing, though she spurn it in her pride."