Thomas Hardy - What did it mean? lyrics

What did it mean that noontide, when You bade me pluck the flower Within the other woman's bower,   Whom I knew nought of then? I thought the flower blushed deeplier - aye, And as I drew its stalk to me It seemed to breathe: “I am, I see, Made use of in a human play.” And while I plucked, upstarted sheer As phantom from the pane thereby A corpse-like countenance, with eye That iced me by its baleful peer -   Silent, as from a bier . . . When I came back your face had changed,   It was no face for me; O did it speak of hearts estranged,   And deadly rivalry   In times before   I darked your door,   To seise me of   Mere second love, Which still the haunting first deranged?