_So I grew wise in Love and Hate,_ 205 _From simple that I was of late._ _Once when I loved, I would enlace_ _Breast, eyelids, hands, feet, form, and face_ _Of her I loved, in one embrace--_ _As if by mere love I could love immensely!_ 210 _Once, when I hated, I would plunge_ _My sword, and wipe with the first lunge_ _My foe's whole life out like a sponge--_ _As if by mere hate I could hate intensely!_ _But now I am wiser, know better the fashion_ 215 _How passion seeks aid from its opposite passion;_ _And if I see cause to love more, hate more_ _Than ever man loved, ever hated before--_ _And seek in the Valley of Love,_ _The nest, or the nook in Hate's Grove,_ 220 _Where my soul may surely reach_ _The essence, naught less, of each,_ _The Hate of all Hates, the Love_ _Of all Loves, in the Valley or Grove--_ _I find them the very warders_ 225 _Each of the other's borders._ _When I love most, Love is disguised_ _In Hate; and when Hate is surprised_ _In Love, then I hate most: ask_ _How Love smiles through Hate's iron casque,_ 230 _Hate grins through Love's rose-braided mask--_ _And how, having hated thee,_ _I sought long and painfully_ _To reach thy heart, nor prick_ _The skin but pierce to the quick--_ 235 _Ask this, my Jules, and be answered straight_ _By thy bride--how the painter Lutwyche can hate!_ JULES _interposes_ Lutwyche! Who else? But all of them, no doubt, Hated me: they at Venice--presently Their turn, however! You I shall not meet: 240 If I dreamed, saying this would wake me. Keep What's here, the gold--we cannot meet again, Consider! and the money was but meant For two years' travel, which is over now, All chance or hope or care or need of it. 245 This--and what comes from selling these, my casts And books and medals, except--let them go Together, so the produce keeps you safe Out of Natalia's clutches! If by chance (For all's chance here) I should survive the gang 250 At Venice, root out all fifteen of them, We might meet somewhere, since the world is wide. [_From without is heard the voice of_ PIPPA, _singing_--