&nbsp A forward rush by the lamp in the gloom,
       &nbsp       &nbsp And we clasped, and almost kissed;
       &nbsp But she was not the woman whom
       &nbsp I had promised to meet in the thawing brume
On that harbour-bridge; nor was I he of her tryst.

       &nbsp So loosening from me swift she said:
       &nbsp       &nbsp “O why, why feign to be
       &nbsp The one I had meant! - to whom I have sped
       &nbsp To fly with, being so sorrily wed!”
- ’Twas thus and thus that she upbraided me.

       &nbsp My assignation had struck upon
       &nbsp       &nbsp Some others’ like it, I found.
       &nbsp And her lover rose on the night anon;
       &nbsp And then her husband entered on
The lamplit, snowflaked, sloppiness around.

       &nbsp “Take her and welcome, man!” he cried:
       &nbsp       &nbsp “I wash my hands of her.
       &nbsp I’ll find me twice as good a bride!”
       &nbsp - All this to me, whom he had eyed,
Plainly, as his wife’s planned deliverer.

       &nbsp And next the lover: “Little I knew,
       &nbsp       &nbsp Madam, you had a third!
       &nbsp Kissing here in my very view!”
       &nbsp - Husband and lover then withdrew.
I let them; and I told them not they erred.
       &nbsp Why not? Well, there faced she and I -
       &nbsp       &nbsp Two strangers who’d kissed, or near,
       &nbsp Chancewise. To see stand weeping by
       &nbsp A woman once embraced, will try
The tension of a man the most austere.

       &nbsp So it began; and I was young,
       &nbsp       &nbsp She pretty, by the lamp,
       &nbsp As flakes came waltzing down among
       &nbsp The waves of her clinging hair, that hung
Heavily on her temples, dark and damp.

       &nbsp And there alone still stood we two;
       &nbsp       &nbsp She one cast off for me,
       &nbsp Or so it seemed: while night ondrew,
       &nbsp Forcing a parley what should do
We twain hearts caught in one catastrophe.

       &nbsp In stranded souls a common strait
       &nbsp       &nbsp Wakes latencies unknown,
       &nbsp Whose impulse may precipitate
       &nbsp A life-long leap. The hour was late,
And there was the Jersey boat with its funnel agroan.

       &nbsp “Is wary walking worth much pother?”
       &nbsp       &nbsp It grunted, as still it stayed.
       &nbsp “One pairing is as good as another
       &nbsp Where all is venture! Take each other,
And scrap the oaths that you have aforetime made.” . . .
       &nbsp - Of the four involved there walks but one
       &nbsp       &nbsp On earth at this late day.
       &nbsp And what of the chapter so begun?
       &nbsp In that odd complex what was done?
       &nbsp Well; happiness comes in full to none:
Let peace lie on lulled lips: I will not say.