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THE GAVEL, by                    
First Line: How strange the jest that after years complete
Last Line: Her sin of love and his of lovelessness.


How strange the jest that after years complete.
They censure her who fell beside the way,
These sheltered ring-wed virgins what know they
Of love that cast her soiled upon the street?
"No novice she ... no man she will not greet
With open arms and smiling lips," they say,
"With words and siren lure to those who pay
She plies her art with eye to silk and meat."

The fallen woman? Yes, but where the man?
He revels yet adept in suave excess,
The thief who laid on her the scarlet ban.
Unscathed by gossip why should he confess
To brothered like within his ribald clan
Her sin of love and his of lovelessness.





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