Act V by Thomas Bailey Aldrich — Read

[Midnight.]

First, two white arms that held him very close,

And ever closer as he drew him back

Reluctantly, the loose gold-colored hair

A thousand delicate fibres reaching out

Still to detain him; then some twenty steps

Of iron staircase winding round and down,

And ending in a narrow gallery hung

With Gobelin tapestries--Andromeda

Rescued by Perseus, and the sleek Diana

With her nymphs bathing; at the farther end

A door that gave upon a starlit grove

Of citron and clipt palm-trees; then a path

As bleached as moonlight, with the shadow of leaves

Stamped black upon it; next a vine-clad length

Of solid masonry; and last of all

A Gothic archway packed with night, and then--

A sudden gleaming dagger through his heart.