Vindication

Here is a tale for gossips and chaste people: There lived a woman once, a straight-laced lady, Whose only love was slander. Nothing shady Escaped her vulture eye. Like some prim steeple Her course of life pointed to Heaven ever; And woe unto the sinner, girl or woman, Whom love undid. She was their fiercest foeman. No circumstance excused. Misfortune, never.... As she had lived she died. The mourners gathered: Parson and preacher, this one and another, And many gossips of most proper carriage. Her will was read. And then... a child was fathered. Fat Lechery had his day.... She'd been a mother. A man was heir.... There'd never been a marriage.