"On with the dance!" you wrote. It has gone on,

Madly and yet more madly. "Though we lingered

In the whirl of life,: you said, and it was sweet

Escape to peace. The hard words fingered

Among my memories and hurt. "We doffed,"

You said, "the masks that hid our human grief."

And there was tenderness and truth behind,

That you remember, though you write it "brief" -

The hours we let the silence go above,

And watched the clouds and listened to the pines.

What though our glimpses of a gypsy-love

In star-lit solitudes--" those days we lived!

And though the years go by, the dancing glitter

Yet more feverishly, though laughing masks

May never reveal your heart, more bitter

Than before, I have remembered with you

The glimpses passionately brief and shy,"

Remembered in a deep and secret place

That spring we lingered while the world went by.

What if our lips in meeting," - ah, the day

Leaving our pine woods - "held swift beauty fast."

What if - " oh, everything, dear lonely heart!

We caught at dream," you wrote. "Now all is past."

Be proud! Remember those high words of truth

We said together, then let circumstance

Go as it will. This way lies happiness

Despite your mask, your cry, "On with the Dance!"