The Truth of Woman

Woman's faith, and woman's trust—Write the characters in the dust;

Stamp them on the running stream,

Print them on the moon's pale beam,

And each evanescent

Shall be clearer, firmer, better,

And more permanent,

I ween,

Than the thing those letters mean.

I have strain'd the spider's thread'Gainst the promise of a maid;

I have weigh'd a grain of sand'Gainst her plight of heart and hand;

I told my true love of the token,

How her faith proved light, and her word was broken:

Again her word and truth she plight,

And I believed them again ere night.

From the novel The Betrothed.