Esther, A Sonnet Sequence: Xl

She went on talking like a running stream, Without more reason or more pause or stay Than to gather breath and then pursue her whim Just where it led her, tender, sad, or gay. Her moods seemed all alike to her. But soon With a little shudder, for the wind was chill And we had lingered on there in the moon, She bade me follow, and I bowed my will. The torrent of her words had drowned in me What humour of resistance there had been, And the last sense of danger ceased to be In the first joy of yielding to such sin. There is no pleasure in the world so sweet As, being wise, to fall at folly's feet.