Denzil place a story in verse. By Violet Fane [i.e. M. M. Lamb] |
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 | Denzil place |  |
From no vain wish to be “sensational”
Or blend into her life the picturesque
And hollow teachings of an alien creed,
Did Constance entertain the wav'ring thought
Of yielding to the Sister's stern advice.
She knew that there were many knotty points
Of doubt and darkness she must overcome—
That many new convictions should be born,
And many old associations slain,
Ere she could honestly embrace a faith
In which she was not born; but then she thought
A calm devotional life of high intent,
Must needs be pleasing in the eyes of God
By whatsoever name its votaries
Were call'd and recognized throughout the earth;
Also, within her bosom, next her love,
Liv'd that unutt'rable desire for rest,
Known only unto those whose hapless fate
Has ever been to battle with the waves,
When they would fain have waited on the shore,
Nor e'er adventured on the stormy seas.
So, thus it stood—she purposed to return
To Farleigh Court, to see Sir John once more
And try to bear the life she once had borne;
But should she prove too burden'd with her Past
To live such life in peace and honesty,
Then she would bid farewell to all the world,
And seeking once again this sunny clime,
Would try and live, as liv'd of old the saints,
A life of penitence and piety—
And should this life, after the 'portion'd time
From lack of faith, seem all too hard to bear, . . . .
“Then” Denzil cried, “Tho' there are convent walls
“Yet there are those who fain would scale and climb
“E'en higher walls, to bear away from thence
“Their only happiness!”
Or blend into her life the picturesque
And hollow teachings of an alien creed,
Did Constance entertain the wav'ring thought
Of yielding to the Sister's stern advice.
She knew that there were many knotty points
Of doubt and darkness she must overcome—
That many new convictions should be born,
And many old associations slain,
Ere she could honestly embrace a faith
In which she was not born; but then she thought
A calm devotional life of high intent,
Must needs be pleasing in the eyes of God
By whatsoever name its votaries
Were call'd and recognized throughout the earth;
Also, within her bosom, next her love,
202
Known only unto those whose hapless fate
Has ever been to battle with the waves,
When they would fain have waited on the shore,
Nor e'er adventured on the stormy seas.
So, thus it stood—she purposed to return
To Farleigh Court, to see Sir John once more
And try to bear the life she once had borne;
But should she prove too burden'd with her Past
To live such life in peace and honesty,
Then she would bid farewell to all the world,
And seeking once again this sunny clime,
Would try and live, as liv'd of old the saints,
A life of penitence and piety—
And should this life, after the 'portion'd time
From lack of faith, seem all too hard to bear, . . . .
“Then” Denzil cried, “Tho' there are convent walls
“Yet there are those who fain would scale and climb
“E'en higher walls, to bear away from thence
“Their only happiness!”
So, of these ways—
The three opposing pathways left to tread—
Constance had tried to follow first the best,
If not the brightest; whilst that sunny line
Of flower-spangled path, she strove to shun
Even in fancy.
The three opposing pathways left to tread—
Constance had tried to follow first the best,
If not the brightest; whilst that sunny line
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Even in fancy.
Then the days slipp'd by
And Geoffrey Denzil grew an alter'd man,
Haggard and desperate, and full of fears,
And Constance too, was pale and wan, and felt
Against her heart a weary gnawing pain;
And thus arose the sun upon the day
Before the one when they were doom'd to part.
And Geoffrey Denzil grew an alter'd man,
Haggard and desperate, and full of fears,
And Constance too, was pale and wan, and felt
Against her heart a weary gnawing pain;
And thus arose the sun upon the day
Before the one when they were doom'd to part.
| Denzil place | |