She fears him, and will always ask

What fated her to choose him;

She meets in his engaging mask

All reasons to refuse him;

But what she meets and what she fears 5

Are less than are the downward years,

Drawn slowly to the foamless weirs

Of age, were she to lose him.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Meanwhile we do no harm; for they

That with a god have striven,

Not hearing much of what we say,

Take what the god has given;

Though like waves breaking it may be, 45

Or like a changed familiar tree,

Or like a stairway to the sea

Where down the blind are driven.

To which word in the first stanza does line 44 of the poem refer?

A) engaging

B) fated

C) fears

D) mask