and in earnest,
  Turn them away from their meaning, and answer with flattering phrases. 
  This is not right, is not just, is not true to the best that is in you;
  For I know and esteem you, and feel that your nature is noble,
  Lifting mine up to a higher, a more ethereal level. 675
  Therefore I value your friendship, and feel it perhaps the more keenly
  If you say aught that implies I am only as one among many,
  If you make use of those common and complimentary phrases
  Most men think so fine, in dealing and speaking with women,
  But which women reject as insipid, if not as insulting.” 680

  Mute and amazed was Alden; and listened and looked at Priscilla,
  Thinking he never had seen her more fair, more divine in her beauty. 
  He who but yesterday pleaded so glibly the cause of another,
  Stood there embarrassed and silent, and seeking in vain for an answer.

  So the maiden went on, and little divined or imagined 685
  What was at work in his heart, that made him so awkward and speechless. 
  “Let us, then, be what we are, and speak what we think, and
      in all things
  Keep ourselves loyal to truth, and the sacred professions
      of friendship. 
  It is no secret I tell you, nor am I ashamed to declare it: 
  I have liked to be with you, to see you, to speak with you always. 690
  So I was hurt at your words, and a little affronted to hear you
  Urge me to marry your friend, though he were the Captain
      Miles Standish. 
  For I must tell you the truth:  much more to me is our friendship
  Than all the love he could give, were he twice the hero you think him.” 
  Then she extended her hand, and Alden, who eagerly grasped it, 695
  Felt all the wounds in his heart, that were aching and bleeding
      so sorely,
  Healed by the touch of that hand, and he said, with a voice
      full of feeling: 
  “Yes, we must ever be friends; and of all who offer you friendship
  Let me be ever the first, the truest, the nearest and dearest!”

  Casting a farewell look at the glimmering sail of the Mayflower 700
  Distant, but still in sight, and sinking below the horizon,
  Homeward together they walked, with a strange, indefinite feeling,
  That all the rest had departed and left them alone in the desert. 
  But, as they went through the fields in the blessing and smile
      of the sunshine,
  Lighter grew their hearts, and Priscilla said very archly:  705
  “Now that our terrible Captain has gone in pursuit of the Indians,
  Where he is happier far than he would be commanding a household,
  You may speak boldly, and tell me of all that happened between you,
  When you returned last night, and said how ungrateful you found me.” 
  Thereupon answered John Alden, and told