Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The poetical works of Alfred Tennyson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material is part of the Elmer Belt Florence Nightingale collection. The original may be consulted at University of California Libraries.
814/870 page 778
![Dora. Who ? Allen. Him as done the mischief here, five year' siu'. Dora. Mr. Edgar ? Allen. Theer, Miss ! You ha' naamed 'im — not me. Dora. He's dead, man — dead; gone to his account — dead and buried. Allen. 1 beaiit sa sewer o' that fur Sally knaw'd 'im; Now then? Dora. Yes; it was in the Somerset- shire ])apers. Allen. Then yon man be his brother, an' we '11 leatlier 'ini. Dora. I never heard that he liad a brother. Some foolisii mistake of Sally's; but what! would you beat a man for his brother's fault? That were a wild jus- tice indeed. Let by-goues be by-goues. Go home ! Good-night! [All exeunt.] I have once more ])aid tlieni all. The work of the farm will go on sstill, but for how long? We are almost at the bottom of the well: little more to be drawn from it — and what then 7 I'^ncumhercd as we are, who would lend us anything? We shall liave to s.ll all the land, which Father, for a whole life, has been getiintr together, a<rain, and that. 1 am sure, would be the dtath of him. What am I to do ? Farmer Doh.^on, were I to marry him, has promised to keep our heads above water; and the man has doubtless a good heart, and a true and lasting love for me : yet — though I can be sorry for liim—as the good Sally says, I can't abide him — almost brutal, and matched with my Harold is like a hedge thistle iiy a garden rose. But then, he, too — will lie ever be of one faith with his wife ? which is my dream of a true marriage. Can I fancy him kneeling with me and u'tering the same prayer; standing up side by side with me and singing the same hymn ? I fear not. Have I done w isely then in ac- cepting him? But may not a girl's love- dream li,i\e too nmch romance in it to be realized all at <mee, or altogether, or any- where but in Heaven ? And yet I had once a vision of a pure and perfect mar- riage, where the man and the woman, only differing as the stronger and the weaker, sliould walk hand in hand to- gether down this va'ley of tears, as they call it so truly, to the grave at the bottom, and lie down there together in ihe dark- ness wliich would seem but for a moment. to be wakened again together by the light of the resurreciion, and no more partings for ever and for ever. ( Walks up and down. She sini/s). O happy lariv that warblest high Above thy lowly nest, O brook, that braulest merrily by Thro' fields that once were blest O tower s])iring to the sky, O graves in daisies drest, 0 Love and Life, how weary am I, And how 1 long for rest. There, there, I am a fool! Tears! 1 have sometimes been nioved to tears by a cha;)ter of fine writing in a novel; but w hat have I to do with tears now ? All dejieiids on me—Father, this poor girl, the farm, everything; and they both love me — I am all iu all to both ; and he Icves me too, 1 am quite sure of that. Courage, couiage! and all will go well. (Goes to bedroom door; opens it.) How dark your room is! Let me bring you in here where there is still full daylight. (Brings l^vx forward.) Why, you look better. Eva. And I feel so much better that I trust I may be able by-and-by to help you iu the business of the farm; but I must not be known yet. Has anyone found me out, Dora ? Dora. Oh, no ; you kept your veil too close for that wheu they carried you in; since then, no one has seen you but my- self. Eva. Yes — this Milly. Dora. Poor blind P'aiher's little guide, Milly, who came to us three years after you were gone, how should she know you ? But now that you have been brought to US as it were from the grave, dearest Eva, and have been here so long, will you not speak with father to-day? EvQ. Do you think that I may ? NOj not yet. J am not equal to it yet. Dora. Why ? Do you still suffer from your fall in the hollow lane? Eva. Bruised ; but no bones broken. Dora. I have always told Father that the huge old ashtree there would cause an accident some day; but he would never cut it down, because one of the Steers had planted it there in former times. Eva. If it had killed one of the Steers there ihe other day, it might have beea better for her, for him, and for ^ou.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20452597_0814.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
