So did they think ;-but partly from delay, Living; from day to day, as they were used, Only with graver thoughts, and smiles reduced, And sighs more frequent, which, when one would' heave, The other longed to start up and receive. For whether some suspicion now had crossed Giovanni's mind, or whether he had lost More of his temper lately, he would treat His wife with petty scorns, and starts of heat, O'erlook the pains she took to make him And kind, yet be angry, if he thought them less; He found reproaches in her meek distress, Forcing her silent tears, and then resenting, And these, for what he knew,-he little cared, Might please her, and be pleased, though he despaired. Then would he quit the room, and half disdain Himself for being in so harsh a strain, And venting thus his temper on a woman; At times like these the princess tried to shun The face of Paulo as too kind a one; And shutting up her tears with final sigh, Would walk into the air, and see the sky, And feel about her all the garden green, And hear the birds that shot the covert boughs between. A noble range it was, of many a rood, Walled round with trees, and ending in a wood: A winding stream about it, clear and glad, That danced from shade to shade, and on its way The daisy, lovely on both sides,-in short, All the sweet cups to which the bees resort, With plots of grass, and perfumed walks between Of citron, honeysuckle and jessamine, With orange, whose warm leaves so finely suit, And look as if they shade a golden fruit;. And midst the flowers, turfed round beneath a shade Of circling pines, a babbling fountain played, And 'twixt their shafts you saw the water bright, Which through the darksome tops glimmered with showering light. So now you walked beside an odorous bed Of gorgeous hues, white, azure, golden, red; And now turned off into a leafy walk, Close and continuous, fit for lovers' talk; And now pursued the stream, and as you trod Felt on your face an air, watery and sweet, And all about, the birds kept leafy house, And sung and sparkled in and out the boughs; And all about, a lovely sky of blue Clearly was felt, or down the leaves laughed through; And here and there, in every part, were seats, With bowering leaves o'erhead, to which the eye But 'twixt the wood and flowery walks, halfway, And formed of both, the loveliest portion lay, A spot, that struck you like enchanted ground It was a shallow dell, set in a mound Of sloping shrubs, that mounted by degrees, - |