Esther, A Sonnet Sequence: Xii

She was a little woman dressed in black, Who stood on tiptoe with a childish air, Her face and figure hidden in a sacque, All but her eyes and forehead and dark hair. Her brow was pale, but it was lit with light, And mirth flashed out of it, it seemed in rays. A childish face, but wise with woman's wit, And something, too, pathetic in its gaze. In the bare dusk of that unseemly place I noted all, and this besides, a scar Which on her cheek had left a paler trace. It seemed to tell its tale of love and war. That little scar! Doubt whispered of this one, Boy as I was, she had not lived a nun.