This done, Esther refused
to mix further in the matter, and made Catherine learn her verses by
heart. The young woman found this no easy task, but when she thought
herself perfect she told Mr. Hazard, as she would have told a
schoolmaster, that she was ready with her sonnet.
"I have finished the sonnet, Mr. Hazard," she said one morning in a
bashful voice, as though she were again at school.
"Where is it, Miss Brooke?"
Then Catherine, drawing herself up, with her hands behind her, began to
recite:
"Oh, little bird! singing upon your way,
Or mourning for your pleasant summer-tide,
Seeing the night and winter at your side,
The joyous months behind, and sunny day!
If, as you know your own pathetic lay,
You knew as well the sorrows that I hide,
Nestling upon my breast, you would divide
Its weary woes, and lift their load away.
I know not that our shares would then be even,
For she you mourn may yet make glad your sight,
While against me are banded death and heaven;
But now the gloom of winter and of night
With thoughts of sweet and bitter years for leaven,
Lends to my talk with you a sad delight."
Esther laughed till the tears rolled down her face at the droll effect
of these tenderly sentimental verses in Catherine's mouth, but Hazard
took it quite seriously and was so much delighted with Catherine's
recitation that he insisted on her repeating it to Wharton, who took it
even more seriously than he.
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