I received The token of returning healthfulness With warm self-gratulation. I had touched The magic hand that held new life for me: The cloud was lifted, and the burden gone. The leaf within my book of fate, that gloomed With awful records, washed and blotched by tears-- Blown by a woman's breath from finger-tip's They knew not what they did--was folded back; And all the next white page held but one word, One word of gold and flame--its title-crown-- That wrought a rosy nimbus for itself; And that one word was LOVE. The laggard days My pride or my propriety imposed Upon desire, before my eyes could see The object of my new-born passion, passed; And in the low hours of an afternoon. Bright with the largess of kingly shower Whose chariot-wheels still thundered in the East, Leaving the West aflame, I sought the meads, And once again, thrilled by foretasted joy, Walked toward the mountain. While I walked, the rain Fell like a veil of gauze between my eyes And the blue wall; and from the precious spot That held the object of my thought, there sprang An iridal effulgence, faint at first, But brightening fast, and leaping to an arch That spanned the heavens--a miracle of light! "There's treasure where the rainbow rests," I said. Would it evade me, as, for years untold, It had evaded every childish dupe Whose feet had chased the bright, elusive cheat? Would it evade me? Question that arose, And loomed with darker front and huger form Than the dark mountain, and more darkly loomed And higher rose as the long path grew short! Would it evade me? Like a passing smile The rainbow faded from the mountain's face; And Hope's resplendent iris, which illumed My question, grew phantasmal, and at length Evanished, leaving but a doubtful blur. Would it evade me? Gods! what wealth or waste Of precious life awaited the reply! Was it a coward's shudder that o'erswept My frame at thought of possible repulse And possible relapse? "Oh! there he comes!" I heard the mistress of the cottage say Behind a honeysuckle. Did I smile? It was because the fancy crossed me then That the announcement was like one which rings Over the polar seas, when, from his perch, The lookout bruits a long-expected whale! Then sweeping the piazza from the spot Where with her niece she sat, she hailed me with: "So, you are come at last! How very sad These men have so much business! Tell me how You got away; how soon you must return; Who suffers by your absence; what the news, And whether you are well."