If I loved you, and you loved me!

'If I loved you!' Why, I scarcely know
How if I did, the time would go!--
I should forget my dreary cares,
My sordid toil, my long despairs,
I should watch your smile, and kneel at your feet,
And live my life in the love of you, Sweet!--
So mad, so glad, so proud I should be,
If I loved you, and you loved me!

'If you loved me!' Ah, nothing so strange
As that could chance in this world of change!--
As well expect a planet to fall,
Or a Queen to dwell in a beggar's hall--
But if you did,--romance and glory
Might spring from our lives' united story,
And angels might be less happy than we--
If I loved you and you loved me!

'If I loved you and you loved me!'
Alas, 't is a joy we shall never see!
You are too fair--I am too cold;--
We shall drift along till we both grow old,
Till we reach the grave, and gasping, die,
Looking back on the days that have passed us by,
When 'what might have been,' can no longer be,--
When I lost you, and you lost me!

The song concluded abruptly, and with passion;--and the King, turning