What  was  there   now  to    smirch    it  ?

Drily  he  smiled  at  that,
Turned  up  his  eyebrows,  and  said  that

the  day  would  tell  me  what :
Meanwhile   my  heart  within    me  was

wroth  at  the  villain's  deed ;
Meanwhile  my  heart  was  breaking  to

have  failed  her  now  in  her  need ;
For  I  had  loved  her  truly,  and  now  I

was  left  alone ;
And  oh  so  still  as  she  lay  there,  trouble

and  tempest  gone !

Not  long  had  I  to  wait  for  what  their

foreboding  feared ;
One  day  quietly  passed — the  lull  ere

the  storm  appeared  ;
But  on  the  next,  like  fire  among  burning

ricks,  it  ran  ;
It  was  told  by  every  woman,  believed

by  every  man.
How  I  had  played  the  deceiver,  how  I

had  brought  disgrace
On  the  good  name  that  was  honoured

o'er  every  name  in  the  place ;
How  Blavick's  son  had  been  blinded.
and  all  his  people  beguiled ;


And  how  in  her  shame  she  had  fled  to

the  father  of  her  child ;
And  they  say  that  he  carried  her  home

a  mile  through  the  drifting  snow ;
And  who  could  have  ever  believed  that

Plein  would  have  acted  so  ?
I  laughed  as  the  tale  was  told,  but  I

tried  to  be  still  and  mute.
For  the  grief  was  more  than  the  wrath,

so  the  story  had  time  to  root :
And  you  cannot  fight  with  a  rumour

which  nobody  stands  to  quite,
For  that  is  like  hitting  at  shadows,  and

beating  the  air  at  night.
Then  it  was  that  I  found  a  blessing  in

Curly  Pow :
She  was  all  of  my  love  that  remained,

all  of  Lizzie  that  I  had  now.
