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She saw me in an instant, and stopped shortWith a sudden change of look from fierce to gay.Her black eyes gleamed with triumph as they caught,Like..

Such was the legend. I had read it throughTwice ere I thought of thinking what it meant.And as I turned with a sigh because I knewThat I alone..

I had stopped to read a handbill of the play,Caught by the lettering. Thus it was I read,``Programme of this night's pieces, SaturdayThe..

The booths were shut. The Fair was at an end,And the crowd gone with multitudinous feetNoisily home, or lingering still to spendAt Café doors or at..

Thus was my soul enfranchised. But anon,With courage fired to full--fledged enterprise,And pushing still the vantage I had won,I sought communion..

The summer I had passed in my own fashionHigh in the Alps, a proselyte to toil.I was released and free, and spent my passionOn the bare rocks as on a..

At such a time indeed of youth's first morn,There is a heaving of the soul in pain,A mighty labour as of joys unborn,Which grieves it and disquiets..

I linger on the threshold of my youth.If you could see me now as then I was,A fair--faced frightened boy with eyes of truthScared at the world yet..

My childhood, then, had passed a mysteryShrouded by death, my boyhood a shut thing.The passion of my soul as it grew freeWith growing youth, a bird..

A glorious triumph. On that day of daysWhen, standing on the summit's utmost edgeOf my first mountain--top, I viewed the mazeWhich I had travelled..

Thus through these griefs I had been set apart,As for a double priesthood. Life to me,In those first moments when I probed my heart,Less an..

Nor later, when with her my childhood died,Was life less sealed to me. The Church becameMy guardian next and mother deified,Who lit within me a more..

You know the story of my birth, the nameWhich I inherited for good and ill,The secret of my father's fame and shame,His tragedy and death on that..

If I have since done evil in my life,I was not born for evil. This I know.My soul was a thing pure from sensual strife.No vice of the blood..

Alas, poor Queen of Beauty! In my heartI could weep for you and your sad graceless doom.You stand at my life's threshold in the partOf king's chief..

I touched that knee. She did not show surprise,And the earth had not opened at our feet.She did not even laugh. Her foolish eyesTwinkled a moment in..

Oh, 'tis a terrible thing in early youthTo be assailed by laughter and mute shame,A terrible thing to be befooled forsoothBy one's own foolish face..

Thus it began with laughter. But anonThe ox--eyed queen, who had resumed by roteThe tale of her perfections one by one,Turned by some ominous chance..

Suddenly then my strange companion cried,``Bring me the body.'' In a moment moreShe had thrown off her hat, her veil untied,And motioning all..

Sublime discussions! Let who will be wise!These are the things that touch us and transcend.The logic of all beauty is surprise,The reason of all love..

Not so my little sponsor. She, with eyesProudly unconscious of my fool's display,Talked volubly to all and scorned disguise,While Madame Blanche..

I followed dumb and shrinking like a thiefClose in her shadow from the women's guess,Yet ruthlessly betrayed for my cheeks' griefFrom head to foot in..

I will not tell the secrets of that place.When Madame Blanche returned to us againI was kneeling there, while Esther kissed my faceAnd dried and..

We came at last, alas! I see it yet,With its open windows on the upper floor,To a certain house still stirring, with lights set,And just a chink left..

How shall I tell my fall? The life of manIs but a tale of tumbles, this way thrownAt his beginning by mere haste of planIn the first gaping ditch..