We had reached The cottage door at this; and there her aunt Awaited our return. So, hand in hand, Assuming show of rustic bashfulness, We paused before her, and with bows profound Made our obeisance. "Well?" she said at length; "Well?--and what of it?" "Are you not surprised?" I asked. "Surprised, indeed! Surprised at what?" "At what you see: and this! and this!" I said, Planting a kiss upon each lovely cheek Of my betrothed, that straightway bloomed with rose. "What! are you blind, my aunt?" "You silly fools! I've seen it from the first," she answered me. "No doubt you thought that you were very deep, Very mysterious--all that sort of thing. I've watched you, and if you, young man, had been Aught but a coward, it had come before, And saved some sleep o' nights to both of you. But down upon your knees, for benison Of one who loves you both." We knelt, and then She kissed us, leaving on our cheeks the tear That sprang to brim the moment. Her shrewd eyes That melted in the sympathy of love, Would not meet ours again, but turned away, And sought in solitude to drain themselves Of their strange passion. God forbid that I, With weak and sacrilegious lips, betray The confidence of love; or tear aside The secrecy behind whose snowy folds Honor and virgin modesty retire For holiest communion! For the fire Which burns upon that altar is of God. Its tongues of flame, throughout all time and space, Speak but one language, understood by all, But sacred ever to the wedded hearts That listen to their breathings. In the deep hours of night I left the cottage, brain and heart o'erfilled With the ethereal vintage I had quaffed. Disturbing not the drowsy ferryman, I slipped his little wherry from the sand, And in the star-sprent river lipped the oars That pulled me homeward. The enchanting tide Was smooth continuation of the dream On which my spirit, holily afloat, Had glided through long hours of happiness. Earth, by the strange, delicious ecstasy, Was changed to paradise; and something kin To gratitude arose within my soul-- A fleeting passion, dying all too soon, Lacking the root which faith alone can feed.