The Wife

        They locked him in a prison cell,
                Murky and mean.
        She kissed him there a wife's farewell
                The bars between.
        And when she turned to go, the crowd,
        Thinking to see her shamed and bowed,
        Saw her pass out as calm and proud
                As any queen.

        She passed a kinsman on the street,
                To whose sad eyes
        She made reply with smile as sweet
                As April skies.
        To one who loved her once and knew
        The sorrow of her life, she threw
        A gay word, ere his tale was due
                Of sympathies.

        She met a playmate, whose red rose
                Had never a thorn,
        Whom fortune guided when she chose
                Her marriage morn,
        And, smiling, looked her in the eye;
        But, seeing the tears of sympathy,
        Her smile died, and she passed on by
                In quiet scorn.

        They could not know how, when by night
                The city slept,
        A sleepless woman, still and white,
                The watches kept;
        How her wife-loyal heart had borne
        The keen pain of a flowerless thorn,
        How hot the tears that smiles and scorn
                Had held unwept.