The Argosy — page 269: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

248 A QUESTION. DEAR, so long through dusk and light We have walked life’s ways together, Holding close when sun was bright, Closer still in cloudy weather. Blind with use, you hardly know What it is that binds us so. Just our clasping hands, my dear, That cling close to one another— These have linked us year by year, And these fetters and none other Bind us now—for good or ill, We are joined but by our will. For our old lives’ sake, hold fast! Tightly clasp, releasing never, Hold with me our heart-warm past, Loosed but once, ’tis lost for ever— Then will rush ’twixt you and me All the waves of all the sea. Once divided so, we may Strive our lives—long, vainly, vainly, To outface the serge and spray, Touch, and see each other plainly: Nothing done can be undone While the earth spins round the sun. I my arms may open wide, You may nestle on my breast, Silent, but unsatisfied, Unpossessing, unpossessed ; Knowing that between our souls All this sea of parting rolls. Then regret will eat our heart, Till despair devours regret, And we shall be more apart Than before we ever met; Most divided by that past, When we held each other fast. We shall sigh—when sighs are vain— ‘‘Oh, lost days that would not linger !” You will rule your world again, I shall sing, a soulless singer— Each look back with longing eyes On our foregone Paradise, Paradise—where now we stand, Once lost, nothing can retrieve it, Still we hold it, hand in hand, Must we lose it ? Need we leave it ? It is ours, my sweet, to-day ; Shall we go, or shall we stay ? E. NESBIT. (COU € JOO (E() m