O mean and jealous heart, what hast thou done! What wrong to honor, spite to Christian love, And shame to self beyond self-pardoning! How can I ever lift my faithless eyes To those true eyes that I have counted false; Or meet those lips that I have charged with lies; Or win the dear embraces I have spurned? O most unhappy, most unworthy wife! No one but he who still has clung to thee,-- Proud, and imperious, and impenitent,-- No one but he who has in silence borne Thy peevish criminations and complaints Can now forgive thee, when in deepest shame Thou bowest with confession of thy faults. Dear husband! David! Look upon your wife! Behold one kneeling never knelt to you! I have abused you and your faithful love, And, in my great humiliation, pray You will not trample me beneath your feet. Pity my weakness, and remember, too, That Love was jealous of thee, and not Hate-- That it was Love's own pride tormented me. My husband, take me once more to your arms, And kiss me in forgiveness; say that you Will be my counselor, my friend, my love; And I will give myself to you again, To be all yours--my reason, confidence, My faith and trust all yours, my heart's best love, My service and my prayers, all yours--all yours! _David_. Rise, dearest, rise! It gives me only pain That such as you should kneel to such as I. Your words inform me that you know how weak I am whom you have only fancied weak. Forgive you? I forgive you everything; And take the pardon which your prayer insures. Let this embrace, this kiss, be evidence Our jarring hearts catch common rhythm again, And we are lovers. _Ruth_. Hush! You trouble him. He understands this scene no more than we. Mary, he speaks to you. _Edward_. Dear wife, farewell! The room grows dim, and silently and soft The veil is dropping 'twixt my eyes and yours, Which soon will hide me from you--you from me. Only one hand is warm; it rests in yours, Whose full, sweet pulses throb along my arm, So that I live upon them. Cling to me! And thus your life, after my life is past, Shall lay me gently in the arms of Death. Thus shall you link your being with a soul Gazing unveiled upon the Great White Throne.