Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/242

242THE HALLIG.

again to find a heart that saw all its desires fulfilled
only in her love.
  Again in Hamburg, she was soon engaged in all the
amusements in which she had formerly lived, and
eventually married a man whose means and inclination
permitted her to shine as a wife in all those follies
which fill up time and never satisfy the heart, but
rather spur it on to a more headlong chase after new
objects to gratify vanity and the love of pleasure.
What emotions she may have felt, what memories of
the past may have risen during her childless married
life, when in the hours of solitude, never to be entirely
avoided, she sat leaning her head upon her hand, the
forgotten embroidery lying on her knee, and with half-
opened eyes staring at vacuity, until, startled by the
falling of a hot tear, she would spring suddenly up and
pass her fingers impetuously over the strings of her
harp as if the wild notes were forcibly to call forth a
joy to which her heart was a stranger, he may judge
who understands the following verses:
     Every life hath one May morning,
        One auspicious hour ; if then
      Thou dost let it pass with scorning,
        It returneth not again.

      Fortune once draws kindly nigh thee,
        Beckons thee with open hand;
      If neglected she pass by thee,
        Thou henceforth art ever banned.

      Tears of thine will never move her
        Thy sad path to cross once more;
      Thou may'st plow the ocean over,
        Thou may'st tread the furthest shore,