Midnight closes

She wore a new "terra cotta" dress,
And we stayed because of the pelting storm,
Within the hansom's dry recess,
Though the horse had stopped; yea, motionless
                   We sat on, snug and warm.

Then the downpour ceased, to my sharp sad pain
And the glass that had screened our forms before
Flew up, and out she sprang to her door:
I should have kissed her if the rain
                   Had lasted a minute more.

I say "I'll seek her side
Ere hindrance interposes;"
But eve in midnight closes
And here I still abide.

When darkness wears I see
Her sad eyes in a vision:
They ask, "What indecision
Detains you, Love, from me? -

"The creaking hinge is oiled,
I have unbarred the backway,
But you tread not the trackway
And shall the thing be spoiled?

"Far cockcrows echo shrill,
The shadows are abating,
And I am waiting, waiting;
But O, you tarry still."

At nine in the morning there passed a church,
At ten there passed me by the sea,
At twelve a town of smoke and smirch,
At two a forest of oak and birch,
And then, on a platform, she:

A radiant stranger, who saw not me.
I queried, "Get out to her do I dare?"
But I kept my seat in my search for a plea,
And the wheels moved on. O could it but be
That I had alighted there!