The Contretemps

&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.