Was changed. As she unlocked the door, she said, 'It grieves me you have waited here so long, But, in good truth, I've wandered much of late; And, sometimes--to my shame I speak--have need Of my best prayers to bring me back again.' 756 While on the board she spread our evening meal, She told me--interrupting not the work Which gave employment to her listless hands-- That she had parted with her elder child; 760 To a kind master on a distant farm Now happily apprenticed.--'I perceive You look at me, and you have cause; to-day I have been travelling far; and many days About the fields I wander, knowing this 765 Only, that what I seek I cannot find; And so I waste my time: for I am changed; And to myself,' said she, 'have done much wrong And to this helpless infant. I have slept Weeping, and weeping have I waked;[85] my tears 770 Have flowed as if my body were not such As others are; and I could never die. But I am now in mind and in my heart More easy; and I hope,' said she, 'that God[86] Will give me patience to endure the things 775 Which I behold at home.' "It would have grieved Your very soul to see her. Sir, I feel The story linger in my heart; I fear 'Tis long and tedious; but my spirit clings To that poor Woman:--so familiarly 780 Do I perceive her manner, and her look, And presence; and so deeply do I feel Her goodness, that, not seldom, in my walks A momentary trance comes over me; And to myself I seem to muse on One 785 By sorrow laid asleep; or borne away, A human being destined to awake To human life, or something very near To human life, when he shall come again For whom she suffered. Yes, it would have grieved 790 Your very soul to see her: evermore Her eyelids drooped, her eyes downward were cast;[87] And, when she at her table gave me food, She did not look at me. Her voice was low, Her body was subdued. In every act 795 Pertaining to her house-affairs, appeared The careless stillness of a thinking mind Self-occupied; to which all outward things Are like an idle matter. Still she sighed, But yet no motion of the breast was seen, 800 No heaving of the heart. While by the fire We sate together, sighs came on my ear, I knew not how, and hardly whence they came.