“There once dwelt in what is now called the Street of the Skeleton a priest attached to the Cathedral, who was in every respect all that a good man of his calling and a true Christian should be, as he was pious, kind-hearted, and charitable, passing his life in seeking out the poor and teaching their children, often bringing cases of need and suffering to the knowledge of wealthier friends—which thing, were it more frequently done by all, would do more to put an end to poverty than anything else. “‘But he who is in everything most human May highest rise and yet the lowest fall; And when a brave kind heart meets with _the_ woman, Our greatest duties seem extremely small, And those which were the first became the least: Even so it happened to this gentle priest. “‘In the old dwelling where he had his home, Which otherwise had been most drear and dull At morn or eve did oft before him come A girl as sweet as she was beautiful; Full soon they learned that both in head and heart Each was to each the very counterpart. “‘There is in every soul of finer grain A soul which is in self a soul apart, Which to itself doth oft deep hid remain, But leaps to life when Love awakes the heart. Then as a vapour rises with the sun, And blends with it, two souls pass into one. “‘And so it came that he would sometimes kiss Her lovely face, nor seemed it much to prove That they in anything had done amiss. Until, one night, there came the kiss of Love, {202} Disguised in friendly seeming like the rest— Alas! he drove an arrow to her breast. “‘Then came the glow of passion—new to both— The honeymoon of utter recklessness, When the most righteous casts away his oath, And all is lost in sweet forgetfulness, And life is steeped in joy, without, within, And rapture seems the sweeter for the sin. “‘Then came in its due course the sad awaking To life and its grim claims, and all around They found, in cold grim truth, without mistaking, These claims for them did terribly abound; And the poor priest was brought into despair To find at every turn a foe was there. “‘To know our love is pure though passionate, And have it judged as if both foul and base, Doth seem to us the bitterness of fate; Yet in the world it is the usual case. By it all priests are judged—yea, every one— Never as Jesus would Himself have done. “‘Because the noblest love with passion rings, Therefore men cry ’tis _all_ mere sexual sense, As if the rose and the dirt from which it springs Were one because of the same elements: Therefore ’tis true that, of all sins accurst, Is Gossip, for it always tells the worst.