Her triumph,
however, did not culminate until the next appearance of "The
Firefly," containing a song "To the Evening Star," which
_everybody_ knew to stand for Mrs. Redmain. The chaos of the
uninitiated, indeed, exoteric and despicable, remained in
ignorance, nor dreamed that the verses meant anybody of note; to
them they seemed but the calf-sigh of some young writer so deep
in his first devotion that he jumbled up his lady-love, Hesper,
and Aphrodite, in the same poetic bundle--of which he left the
string-ends hanging a little loose, while, upon the whole, it
remained a not altogether unsightly bit of prentice-work. Tom had
not been at the party, but had gathered fire enough from what he
heard of Hesper's appearance there to write the verses. Here they
are, as nearly as I can recall them. They are in themselves not
worth writing out for the printers, but, in their surroundings,
they serve to show Tom, and are the last with which I shall
trouble the readers of this narrative.
"TO THE EVENING STAR.
"From the buried sunlight springing,
Through flame-darkened, rosy loud,
Native sea-hues with thee bringing,
In the sky thou reignest proud!
"Who is like thee, lordly lady,
Star-choragus of the night!
Color worships, fainting fady,
Night grows darker with delight!
"Dusky-radiant, far, and somber,
In the coolness of thy state,
From my eyelids chasing slumber,
Thou dost smile upon my fate;
"Calmly shinest; not a whisper
Of my songs can reach thine ear;
What is it to thee, O Hesper,
That a heart should long or fear?"
Tom did not care to show Letty this poem--not that there was
anything more in his mind than an artistic admiration of Hesper,
and a desire to make himself agreeable in her eyes; but, when
Letty, having read it, betrayed no shadow of annoyance with its
folly, he was a little relieved.
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