THE CARD-DEALER. Coup you not drink her gaze like wine? ‘Yet though its splendour swoon Into the silence languidly AS a tune into a tune, ‘Those eyes unravel the coiled night And know the stars at noon, ‘The gold that’s heaped beside her hand, Tn truth rich prize it were ; And rich the dreams that wreathe her brows With magic stillzess there; And he were tich who should unwind That woven golden hair. Around her, where she sits, the dance Now breathes its eager heat ; ‘And not more lightly or more true Fall there the dancers’ feetTHE CARD-DEALER, 93 Than fall her cards on the bright board Ag 'twere an heart that beat. Her fingers let them softly through, Smooth polished silent things ; And each one as it falls reflects In swift light-shadowings, Blood-red and purple, green and blue, ‘The great eyes of her rings. Whom plays she with? With thee, who lov’st Those gems upon her hand ; With me, who search her secret brows; With all men, bless‘d or bann’d. We play together, she and we, Within a vain strange land : A land without aay order,— Day even as night, (one saith,)— Where who lieth down ariseth not Nor the sleeper awakeneth ; A Jand of darkness as darkness itself And of the shadow of death,THE CARD-DEALER. What be her cards, you ask? Even these:— The heart, that doth but crave More, having fed; the diamond, Skilled to make base seem brave ; The club, for smiting in the dark ; The spade, to dig a grave. And do you ask what game she plays ? With me ’tis lost or won} With thee it is playing still ; with him Tt is not well begun; But “tis a game she plays with all Beneath the sway o” the sun, Thou seest the card that falls—she knows ‘The card that followeth : Her game in thy tongue is called Life, As ebbs thy daily breath : When she shall speak, thou'lt learn her tongue And know she calls it Death,