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Show THE MASQUERADER Above her sunny head the netted boughs "Wove delicate arabesques; unfolding buds, With faint elusive hints of vapory green, Festooned the aisles; from every mossy flank Shey violets peeped; and where pale ferns uncurled un-curled Their silvery fronts amid the russet leaves, A slender rill rang all iU crystal bells, Deliriously free. Returning birds Twittered from swinging branches where she moved, Her young lips tremulous with a little song Fledged from her heart. Then suddenly she saw Before her one who tottered as he walked, Oft pausing, while he leaned upon his Btaff, To rest his feeble HmH His wrinkled hands With oalsy shook, and irom his wasted form Loosely the garments hung in many a fold. With pitying steps she hastened to his side; "Poor man," she pleaded, "you are so infirm, And I so young and strong, pray lean on me." Whereat he turned and clasped her where she stood; And she, all breathless with surprise and fright, Lifting a moment her blanched face to his, Beheld beneath a thatch of snow-white hair Youth's shining locks, while on her own eyes beamed, From out that frosty counterfeit of age, The radiant, warm and mirth-brimmed eyes of love. The Bellman. |