Watching the sullen fire,
Hearing the dreary rain,
Drop after drop, run down
On the darkening window-pane;
Chill was the heart of Bertha,
Chill as that winter day,—­
For the star of her life had risen
Only to fade away.

III.

The voice that had been so strong
To bid the snare depart,
The true and earnest will,
And the calm and steadfast heart,
Were now weigh’d down by sorrow,
Were quivering now with pain;
The clear path now seem’d clouded,
And all her grief in vain.

IV.

Duty, Right, Truth, who promised
To help and save their own,
Seem’d spreading wide their pinions
To leave her there alone. 
So, turning from the Present
To well-known days of yore,
She call’d on them to strengthen
And guard her soul once more.

V.

She thought how in her girlhood
Her life was given away,
The solemn promise spoken
She kept so well to-day;
How to her brother Herbert
She had been help and guide,
And how his artist-nature
On her calm strength relied.

VI.

How through life’s fret and turmoil
The passion and fire of art
In him was soothed and quicken’d
By her true sister heart;
How future hopes had always
Been for his sake alone;
And now, what strange new feeling
Possess’d her as its own?

VII.

Her home; each flower that breathed there;
The wind’s sigh, soft and low;
Each trembling spray of ivy;
The river’s murmuring flow;
The shadow of the forest;
Sunset, or twilight dim;
Dear as they were, were dearer
By leaving them for him.

VIII.

And each year as it found her
In the dull, feverish town,
Saw self still more forgotten,
And selfish care kept down
By the calm joy of evening
That brought him to her side,
To warn him with wise counsel,
Or praise with tender pride.

IX.

Her heart, her life, her future,
Her genius, only meant
Another thing to give him,
And be therewith content. 
To-day, what words had stirr’d her,
Her soul could not forget? 
What dream had fill’d her spirit
With strange and wild regret?

X.

To leave him for another: 
Could it indeed be so? 
Could it have cost such anguish
To bid this vision go? 
Was this her faith?  Was Herbert
The second in her heart? 
Did it need all this struggle
To bid a dream depart?

XI.