Where my Leonainie drifted
From me like a dream.

[Illustration: (LEONAINIE--TAILPIECE)]

[Illustration: (HER WAITING FACE)]

HER WAITING FACE

In some strange place
Of long-lost lands he finds her waiting face--
Comes marveling upon it, unaware,
Set moonwise in the midnight of her hair.

[Illustration: (THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW--TITLE)]

THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW

I

As one in sorrow looks upon
The dead face of a loyal friend,
By the dim light of New Year's dawn
I saw the Old Year end.

Upon the pallid features lay
The dear old smile--so warm and bright
Ere thus its cheer had died away
In ashes of delight.

The hands that I had learned to love
With strength of passion half divine,
Were folded now, all heedless of
The emptiness of mine.

[Illustration: (I SAW THE OLD YEAR END)]

The eyes that once had shed their bright
Sweet looks like sunshine, now were dull,
And ever lidded from the light
That made them beautiful.

II

The chimes of bells were in the air,
And sounds of mirth in hall and street,
With pealing laughter everywhere
And throb of dancing feet:

The mirth and the convivial din
Of revelers in wanton glee,
With tunes of harp and violin
In tangled harmony.

But with a sense of nameless dread,
I turned me, from the merry face
Of this newcomer, to my dead;
And, kneeling there a space,

I sobbed aloud, all tearfully:--
By this dear face so fixed and cold,
O Lord, let not this New Year be
As happy as the old!

THEIR SWEET SORROW

They meet to say farewell: Their way
Of saying this is hard to say.--
He holds her hand an instant, wholly
Distressed--and she unclasps it slowly.

He bends _his_ gaze evasively
Over the printed page that she
Recurs to, with a new-moon shoulder
Glimpsed from the lace-mists that enfold her.

The clock, beneath its crystal cup,
Discreetly clicks--"_Quick! Act! Speak up!_"
A tension circles both her slender
Wrists--and her raised eyes flash in splendor.

Even as he feels his dazzled own.--
Then, blindingly, round either thrown,
They feel a stress of arms that ever
Strain tremblingly--and "_Never! Never!_"

Is whispered brokenly, with half
A sob, like a belated laugh,--
While cloyingly their blurred kiss closes,
Sweet as the dew's lip to the rose's.

[Illustration: (THEIR SWEET SORROW)]

[Illustration: (JUDITH)]

JUDITH

O he