LIX

Therefore they watch'd a time when they might sift

      This hidden whim; and long they watch'd in vain;

For seldom did she go to chapel-shrift,

      And seldom felt she any hunger-pain:

And when she left, she hurried back, as swift

      As bird on wing to breast its eggs again:

And, patient as a hen-bird, sat her there

Beside her Basil, weeping through her hair.