THE FALSE STEP.
SWEET, thou hast trod on a heart;
Pass! There’s a world full of men.
And women as fair as thou art
Must do such things now and then.
Thou only hast stept* unaware, -
Malice not one can impute;
And why should a heart have been there
In the way of a fair woman’s foot?
In was not a stone that could trip,
Nor was it a thorn that could read;
Put up thy proud underlip!
‘Twas merely the heart of a friend.
And yet, peradventure, one day,
Thou, sitting alone as the glass,
Remarking the blooms gone away,
Where the smile in its dimplement was;
And seeking around thee in vain,
From hundreds who flattered before,
Such a word as, “Oh, not in the main
Do I hold thee less precious, but more!”
Thou’lt sigh, very like, on thy part,
“Of all I have known, or can know,
I wish I had only that heart
I trod upon ages ago!”
*Stept = Stepped.