Read "At the Draper's" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"I STOOD at the back of the shop, my dear, / But you did not perceive me. / Well, when they deliver what you were shown / _I_ shall know nothing of it, believe me!"
And he coughed and coughed as she paled and said, / "O, I didn't see you come in there- / Why couldn't you speak? "-"Well, I didn't. I left / That you should not notice I'd been there.
"You were viewing some lovely things. ‘_Soon required_ / _For a widow_, _of latest fashion_'; / And I knew 'twould upset you to meet the man / Who had to be cold and ashen
"And screwed in a box before they could dress you / ‘_In the last new note in mourning_,' / As they defined it. So, not to distress you, / I left you to your adorning. "