Part 2 — THE LOST MISTRESS
Reading edition
All's over, then: does truth sound bitter As one at first believes? Hark, 'tis the sparrows' good-night twitter About your cottage eaves!
And the leaf-buds on the vine are woolly, I noticed that, to-day; One day more bursts them open fully —You know the red turns gray.
To-morrow we meet the same then, dearest? May I take your hand in mine? Mere friends are we,—well, friends the merest Keep much that I resign:
For each glance of the eye so bright and black, Though I keep with heart's endeavor,— Your voice, when you wish the snowdrops back, Though it stay in my soul forever!—
Yet I will but say what mere friends say, Or only a thought stronger; I will hold your hand but as long as all may, Or so very little longer!
Robert Browning [1812-1889]