Explore "The Newcomer's Wife" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
HE paused on the sill of a door ajar / That screened a lively liquor-bar, / For the name had reached him through the door / Of her he had married the week before.
"We called her the Hack of the Parade; / But she was discreet in the games she played; / If slightly worn, she's pretty yet, / And gossips, after all, forget.
"And he knows nothing of her past; / I am glad the girl's in luck at last; / Such ones, though stale to native eyes, / Newcomers snatch at as a prize."
"Yes, being a stranger he sees her blent / Of all that's fresh and innocent, / Nor dreams how many a love-campaign / She had enjoyed before his reign!"
That night there was the splash of a fall / Over the slimy harbour-wall: / They searched, and at the deepest place / Found him with crabs upon his face.