Beside him on his lonely throne,
Or share in love's divine embrace.

And knowing that the coming days
Would strip her features of their mask,
That duty then would speak her praise,
And love become a loyal task,
Save he should find beneath the glaze

His fiery love of her had spread,
Diviner things he had not seen,
She feared her woman's heart and head
Were armed with charms and powers too mean
To win the boon she coveted.

But still she saw and held her plan,
And fear made way for springing hope.
If she was man's, then hers was man:
Both held their own in even scope;
And then and there her life began.




LOVE'S PHILOSOPHIES.

I.

A wife is like an unknown sea;--
Least known to him who thinks he knows