Eager he sought me, eagerly to shun, Kneeling he woo’d me, but he scorn’d me won; The tears he caused served only to provoke His wicked insult o’er the heart he broke; My fond compliance served him for a jest, And sharpen’d scorn——‘I ought to be distress’d; Why did I not with my chaste ghost comply?’ And with upbraiding scorn he told me why;— 940 O! there was grossness in his soul; his mind Could not be raised, nor soften’d, nor refined. “Twice he departed in his rage, and went I know not where, nor how his days were spent; Twice he return’d a suppliant wretch, and craved, Mean as profuse, the trifle I had saved. “I have had wounds, and some that never heal, What bodies suffer, and what spirits feel; But he is gone who gave them, he is fled To his account! and my revenge is dead— 950 Yet is it duty, though with shame, to give My sex a lesson—let my story live; For, if no ghost the promised visit paid, } Still was a deep and strong impression made, } That wisdom had approved, and prudence had obey’d; } But from another world that warning came, And O! in this be ended all my shame! “Like the first being of my sex I fell, } Tempted, and with the tempter doom’d to dwell— } He was the master-fiend, and where he reign’d was hell.” 960} * * * * * This was her last, for she described no more The rankling feelings of a mind so sore, But died in peace.—One moral let us draw, Be it a ghost or not the lady saw. If our discretion tells us how to live, We need no ghost a helping hand to give; But, if discretion cannot us restrain, It then appears a ghost would come in vain. TALES OF THE HALL. BOOK XVII. _THE WIDOW._ The Morning Walk—Village Scenery—The Widow’s Dwelling—Her Story related—The first Husband—His Indulgence—Its Consequence—Dies—The second—His Authority—Its Effects—His Death—A third Husband—Determinately indulgent—He dies also—The Widow’s Retirement. TALES OF THE HALL. BOOK XVII. _THE WIDOW._