Chapter LI

But weeks and months went by, in which she fill’d
A certain void in life; and, every eve,
We parted for the night made better friends.
Once, ending thus, the pleasures of the day,
We chanced upon a path where, sauntering too,
Lo, Elbert enter’d and encounter’d us.

At first scarce friendly, after divers tests,
And in the new light of my life with her,
His older love return’d with oldest warmth:
“To think so thin a fancy,” he exclaim’d,
“As last I found you folded in, should screen
Our genuine hearts, a moment, each from each!”