[Gwymplanestarts imperceptibly. The maliciousDuchess, reading his thought, shuts the window and locks it.Gwymplanelooks at her in terror.]
[Gwymplanestarts imperceptibly. The maliciousDuchess, reading his thought, shuts the window and locks it.Gwymplanelooks at her in terror.]
And what did you reply to your preposterous lover, little gipsy thief?
Dea
Madame!
Duchess
Unconscious, charming thief of affection that should tonight, if ever, have been faithful! So [half to herself] one can be jealous of a man without caring a rap for him! Well, it is something to have found out that vanity is the ruling passion. I shall take more care of its feelings than ever after this. But—your story, little blind girl.
Dea
O—I stretched my arms out against this gentleman and prayed, and my prayer washeard, for Phedro came and said he thought he had heard you call, and this man went out telling me to remain, when a pair of hands suddenly laid hold upon my wrists and led me out into the air, then pushed me into this room.
Duchess
Think how disappointed your lover will be when he returns and finds you gone!
Dea
I do not care what he should think.
Duchess
Your affections are already a wreath upon some mortal head, eh?
Dea[modestly]
Yes, I love, I am beloved.
Duchess[quizzically regarding her]
By whom, pray?
Dea
Messire Gwymplane of the circus troop.
Duchess[throwing back her head and laughing]
No? Beloved by Gwymplane, you say?
[Gwymplanelooks at her in a horror of bewilderment, the point of her conduct beginning to pierce his heart.]
[Gwymplanelooks at her in a horror of bewilderment, the point of her conduct beginning to pierce his heart.]
Dea
O yes, beloved by Gwymplane.
Duchess
It seems to me, child, that upon this somewhat fantastic night we have perhaps changed partners.
Dea
Madame?
[Gwymplanestands rigidly silent. TheDuchessplucks a flower from a vase, throwing the petals overDea'shead in a gesture half gay, half brutal.]
[Gwymplanestands rigidly silent. TheDuchessplucks a flower from a vase, throwing the petals overDea'shead in a gesture half gay, half brutal.]
Duchess
At last the whimsy of my soul is outmatched by the turn of events.
Dea
I hang upon your words, Madame, yet I do not understand them.
Duchess
Still you and I have proven to each other, with and without intent, the existence of a quality common to the world at large—faithlessness, look you.
[With an almost violent gesture she dragsDeaover toGwymplaneand places her hand upon the familiar form.]
[With an almost violent gesture she dragsDeaover toGwymplaneand places her hand upon the familiar form.]
Dea
[Feeling with gradually hurrying, hysterical fingers.]
[Feeling with gradually hurrying, hysterical fingers.]
Gwymplane, my love!
Gwymplane
Ah, Dea, yes.
Dea
How wonderful to find you in this terrible nightmare—like a fire flaming up before snow-lost feet.
Gwymplane
My Dea.
[She puts her hand upon his shoulder, theDuchessregarding them through her lorgnette.]
[She puts her hand upon his shoulder, theDuchessregarding them through her lorgnette.]
Duchess
What an idyl! How it refreshes me to watch. However, come, clown, take the girl and begone. Here is a crown for your love—it did not please me, you know, so you are getting far more than your deserts.
Dea[halting]
Your love, Gwymplane? She said your love?
Gwymplane
Anyone can misuse a word, but my voice is lost in a stammer of shame.
Dea
I do not understand, but for what is love save to pass understanding? [She puts her arm through his] Come, let us go.
Duchess[with furious malice]
What a charming way of conducting life, little blind girl! When your lover is tired of pursuing his latest fancy and has been thrown out [almost stamping her foot] he will return and grow warm in the rays of your faith.
Dea
Gwymplane will not fancy anyone save me.Ursus says so, and besides I know it—I could not live if I did not know it.
Duchess[laughing]
[Gwymplanesteps menacingly towards her.]
[Gwymplanesteps menacingly towards her.]
Clown, clown, you shall not murder me because I do not champion your deceits. [toDea] Your lover does not care that I should repeat the poetry of his conversation to me this evening, but it was such rare poetry—more rare than I wanted in fact. [mimicking derisively] "I feel as if we were in a black barge upon a scarlet sea, as if in a moment our boat would dip over the horizon line, and we two should be lost forever," or—here is another pretty line—"I feel as if all the rays of light in the world were flowing from behind the chalice of your pale face."
Dea[putting her hand to her heart]
Oh, Gwymplane—the last thing she said—was so like—so like——
Duchess
Maybe it is a stanza that he says to all of us. Poets are peculiar creatures—they havetheir lines by heart and insist upon repeating them, even at the wrong moment.
Dea[staggers]
Gwymplane, my love—for you are my love—I am terribly hurt somewhere—Let us go.
Gwymplane
[SupportingDeaand turning to theDuchess.]
[SupportingDeaand turning to theDuchess.]
You did not have your pleasure, I know, and——
Duchess[pointing imperiously]
Go, clown. I can add the situation up myself. No, I think I want another word with you.
[Gwymplane, unheeding, tries to pass her withDeaupon his arm.]
[Gwymplane, unheeding, tries to pass her withDeaupon his arm.]
Fool, obey me, or embrace a peril that will choke you and your little friend of disobedience. Come, she shall await you in my private conservatory.
[She makes a gesture as if to separate them.]
[She makes a gesture as if to separate them.]
Gwymplane
I shall go with her.
Duchess
Nay, suspect no more mousetraps. Lead her there yourself; see that she is comfortable among the candles and flowers, then return to me for your own interest and for hers.
[GwymplaneleadsDeaout door on left and returns.]
[GwymplaneleadsDeaout door on left and returns.]
You have had a strange evening for a mountebank—an evening filled with such events as to strain almost any amount of discretion.
Gwymplane
I shall not talk.
Duchess
Not of ourselves, of course. No man, not even a clown, but draws a veil across his rejected flesh.
Gwymplane
Well then?
Duchess
But in that spiritual condition which followsbeing repudiated your muscles will probably be seeking, straining, to express your mind and the direction will probably be to avenge your blind girl.
Gwymplane
All that in my own way, Madame.
Duchess
And your way will be? Come.
Gwymplane
Ah, Madame, I am weary of your commands. Over my actions you have a certain power, but, as my mind and what shall come out of it is still mysterious to me, I am afraid you must share the discomfort of my own ignorance.
Duchess[in a more kindly tone]
Listen to me, clown. You were brought to me tonight to relieve me of a whim, I admit that. And you brought me no relief.
Gwymplane[with sophistication]
The question interests me dispassionately, Madame. But, considering you waived mypersonal defects [he winces], just why did I not—please you?
Duchess
But I told you before—I wanted a clown, and you talk like the very essence of all these lords and poets. But that is aside—I am to be married tomorrow.
Gwymplane
I know,—to him—and you wish him spared the public lash of scandal, I suppose.
Duchess
He need not be spared it entirely—I do not ask that. You can make plea to the Queen, if you wish, the day after the ceremony—only not tomorrow. Much rests on that for me.
Gwymplane
Madame, with the insolence of your class, you are asking favours of one whose degradation you have sought and shared.
Duchess
Perhaps, but you must remember that I am the sister of the Queen and can imposeobedience to the most insolent favours I choose to demand.
[A loud knock from the door leading into the conservatory.Gwymplanestarts towards the door. TheDuchessholds him back.]
[A loud knock from the door leading into the conservatory.Gwymplanestarts towards the door. TheDuchessholds him back.]
Truly an eventful hour. [she raises her voice]
Ah, what now?
Voice of the Queen
I heard you were so indisposed you could not come to me even upon the most urgent matter.
[TheDuchesssignifies with a gesture of fury that she is aware of being fatally played against. In the meantime theQueenis putting her own key into the lock.Josephineturns with supplication toGwymplane, at length too afflicted by the situation to guard her poise.]
[TheDuchesssignifies with a gesture of fury that she is aware of being fatally played against. In the meantime theQueenis putting her own key into the lock.Josephineturns with supplication toGwymplane, at length too afflicted by the situation to guard her poise.]
Duchess
You would not talk like a clown. Be——I know you—a gentleman. Save me! Save us!
[She points to a door.]
[She points to a door.]
In there—a blind closet. Do not attempt to escape or we shall hear you.
Gwymplane
[Bowing low and casting an ironic eye upon the panic of theDuchess.]
[Bowing low and casting an ironic eye upon the panic of theDuchess.]
There is at least a peculiar variety in your demands, Madame——
[The door barely closes upon him as theQueenenters continuing her speech.]
[The door barely closes upon him as theQueenenters continuing her speech.]
Queen
Consequently, if you are too ill to attend the Queen, it is but human for the Queen to await anxiously upon you. But, my dear—
[TheDuchessis biting her lip with ill-concealed rage.]
[TheDuchessis biting her lip with ill-concealed rage.]
You do not look ill—you look angry. Have there been disturbing things?
[She plucks the curtain aside, and lets it drop, but continues looking about her with assumed carelessness.]
[She plucks the curtain aside, and lets it drop, but continues looking about her with assumed carelessness.]
Duchess
Nothing more disturbing than being continually interrupted—I do not speak of your Majesty's visit—when I wished to remain undisturbed.
Queen
How annoying to have one's solitary reveries continually scattered by people hammering at the door. What did they all want? Who were they?
Duchess
There was Charles.
Queen
And after that?
Duchess
O, various people asking ridiculous questions.
[She plucks a large bit of heliotrope from the bowl and bites it rather vengefully.]
[She plucks a large bit of heliotrope from the bowl and bites it rather vengefully.]
But, my sister, do confide in me the august matter that can necessitate your being abroad at such an unearthly hour.
Queen
There is no one that can overhear us? You have dismissed your servants?
Duchess
O, hours ago. [rather insolently] You may feel quite at your ease with me.
Queen
You will forgive my poking about, Josephine? But you are so vague—all artistic and beautiful natures are vague—you might easily have forgotten that Piccolo is hanging about somewhere waiting to carry a last goodnight word to your impatient bridegroom. Why, there is a strange girl sitting at this very moment in your conservatory. Her face was somehow familiar.
Duchess[commencing to be rather distracted]
Ah, yes, a late hamper of my wedding clothes. The girl awaits for me to repay her pains for coming. But, indeed, your Majesty, I would be flattered if you would accept my word that we are alone here.
Queen
Dear child, naturally, I accept your conviction that there is no one about, but I do not trust your memory. I admire too much the artist in you for that. Ah! Do I hear someone scratching apologetically upon the window? [smiling] Really, no wonder your sense of privacy is outraged tonight.
Duchess
Who now?
Prince[in a slightly frantic voice]
I, Josephine. Did anyone pass in by this window a few minutes ago?
Duchess
[Looking at theQueen, whose ironic countenance struggles with real emotion.]
[Looking at theQueen, whose ironic countenance struggles with real emotion.]
Who should? You perceive the curtains are drawn.
Prince
A girl—one of the troupe of mountebanks—a blind girl. Phedro brought her in with a most important letter for the Queen. He left her a moment, returned, and she was gone. He hesitated to disturb you at this late hour; so I told him I would come myself and ask.
Queen[suddenly speaking in a tone of relief]
Ah, with a note for me. Is it only that? For Heaven's sake, don't go on talking through a closed window, Charles. It gives such an air of tension to everything. Josephine, open the window to Charles.
[Josephine obeys.]
[Josephine obeys.]
Prince
[Stepping into the room so befogged with his own agitation as to have no room left for astonishment at the presence of theQueen.]
[Stepping into the room so befogged with his own agitation as to have no room left for astonishment at the presence of theQueen.]
Josephine, your Majesty, are you quite sure——
Duchess
My dear Charles, do you think I am in the habit of not noticing the intrusion of perfectly strange women into my apartment at night?
Prince
Then you saw no one?
[Duchesssmiles enigmatically.]
[Duchesssmiles enigmatically.]
Queen[addressing thePrince]
Why are you so anxious that this message from the blind girl is delayed? Or are you just naturally upset about everything tonight, being so near the altar?
Duchess
Ah, yes, so near the altar. Tell me how have you spent these last free hours, Charles?
Queen
I hope you have spent them romantically, fingering a lute or something.
Duchess
Fingering something—was it a lute, Charles?
[Charlesglances at theDuchessin alarm. TheQueenintercepts the look and grows a little uneasy herself.]
[Charlesglances at theDuchessin alarm. TheQueenintercepts the look and grows a little uneasy herself.]
Queen
You seem to be throwing dirt at one another out of a bonbonnière. I have a feeling I should extremely dislike to hear you actually explain yourselves. I wonder where Phedro is. He has hinted to me of extraordinary news for tonight. [she opens the window and looks out] And now it is almost dawn.
[She callsPhedro, and opens the door through which she has entered the room, callingPhedro.]
[She callsPhedro, and opens the door through which she has entered the room, callingPhedro.]
Voice of Phedro
Majesty, I come.
[He enters. TheDuchessgives him a fearful look, which he returns with a grim smile.]
[He enters. TheDuchessgives him a fearful look, which he returns with a grim smile.]
Queen
You promised significant news for me aftermidnight and in the apartment of the Duchess. I have come. It is long beyond midnight. What have you to say?
Phedro
We are strictly in private, your Majesty?
Queen
Assure yourself. I had some feeling about it myself a few minutes ago.
[Phedrosteps at once to the door where the mountebank is concealed, but theDuchesswith a haughty look actually forestalls him, opening the door herself.Gwymplanesteps into the room. TheQueenpretends to be speechless. ThePrinceis.]
[Phedrosteps at once to the door where the mountebank is concealed, but theDuchesswith a haughty look actually forestalls him, opening the door herself.Gwymplanesteps into the room. TheQueenpretends to be speechless. ThePrinceis.]
[stiffly] Your Grace, the Duchess of Beaumont will please explain.
Duchess
Oh, this mountebank was merely seeking the blind girl from his troupe, who had been admitted, or possibly abducted, into the palace.
Queen
Abducted, really? By whom? For whom?
Duchess[with a glance atCharles]
We do not know, but we guess possibly.
[At the word "abducted"Gwymplanesteps menacingly up to thePrince. TheQueencatches the look of hauteur and hatred that is exchanged between them. She hastily discovers some growing discomfort from which she slides away in her usual fashion by pursuing another channel of thought.]
[At the word "abducted"Gwymplanesteps menacingly up to thePrince. TheQueencatches the look of hauteur and hatred that is exchanged between them. She hastily discovers some growing discomfort from which she slides away in her usual fashion by pursuing another channel of thought.]
Queen
Nevertheless, why does he seek his partner in your Grace's closet?
Prince
Josephine, good God—what are you?
Duchess
What you are or would be, Charles—a star of the nobility, shedding its single glory for the last time.
Queen
Come, come, cease your language. Why was this mountebank in your Grace's closet?
Duchess
He flew to the nearest door in the opposite direction from whence came your Majesty's voice. I suppose he lost his head in his embarrassment. That is a quality of the lower classes.
Queen
Your answers are tedious evasions. They explain nothing save what you wish to conceal—your dishonour. [she turns toGwymplane] Mountebank, I think you have ruined and frustrated the life of a most important personage in our court.
Phedro
Hold, hold. A bat has not torn a lily as you suppose, your Majesty.
Queen
No? Then whathashappened, Phedro? And do drop your metaphor. We are not wise enough so late to do it justice.
Phedro
Two stars have blundered together, that is all. Her Grace the Duchess of Beaumont and His Highness Prince Ian of Vaucluse.
Prince
My brother? Here? But my brother is dead! Where can you have imagined to have seen my brother?
Phedro
[ApproachesGwymplanemaking him a low bow.]
[ApproachesGwymplanemaking him a low bow.]
Prince Ian of Vaucluse.
[Gwymplane, as if he saw madness, loses the nervous control of his features by which he can efface his terrible grin, and his face grows convulsed with it.]
[Gwymplane, as if he saw madness, loses the nervous control of his features by which he can efface his terrible grin, and his face grows convulsed with it.]
Queen[regarding him and laughing shrilly]
Here is some monstrous joke devised by Phedro. Why, Josephine, if this were true, then he—the clown—would be your fiancé, nor have a right to reject you, since sharing in your rather disreputable offence. Ah, what folly! [she places her hand upon her heart, gazing atPrince Charles] But how I would like to credit the wildest phantasy tonight.
[TheDuchessis looking on disdainfully as if witnessing rather a boring farce.]
[TheDuchessis looking on disdainfully as if witnessing rather a boring farce.]
Phedro[looking intensely at theQueen]
When the thing that we have longed for comes true, it may sound like madness. I have every credential to prove my extraordinary announcement.
Queen
[Looking whimsically from one to another.]
[Looking whimsically from one to another.]
Ah, let us suppose for a moment, Josephine, that this were true. Surely you would be happy in a marriage so fortified by natural selection, and, as for Charles—the loss of certain things might be replaced by others.
[She gazes at him tenderly.]
[She gazes at him tenderly.]
Duchess
[In a sudden outburst of confusion and ennui.]
[In a sudden outburst of confusion and ennui.]
We are all gone mad. I feel as if we were in a web. I marry with a clown—the clown a lord—the lord a deformity. [She shudders]
Gwymplane
O, I cannot stand this hellish whirl anotherinstant. It is biting my ankles off and blinding my eyes in a red sting of madness.
[He attempts to throw open the door.Phedroswiftly forestalls him with widespread arms and a grim expression;Gwymplaneturns away bowed from his ferocity of pain and bewilderment, whilePhedro, with an incredible, greased swiftness, lets himself out the door, and returns almost upon the instant withDeaterrified, supported on his arm.]
[He attempts to throw open the door.Phedroswiftly forestalls him with widespread arms and a grim expression;Gwymplaneturns away bowed from his ferocity of pain and bewilderment, whilePhedro, with an incredible, greased swiftness, lets himself out the door, and returns almost upon the instant withDeaterrified, supported on his arm.]
Phedro[turning suavely toDea]
My dear young lady, calm yourself. Where is the letter?
[Deatakes it from her breast.Gwymplanelooks at the letter in agonized amazement.]
[Deatakes it from her breast.Gwymplanelooks at the letter in agonized amazement.]
Dea
You said I was to give it to the Queen.
Phedro
You are in the presence of her Majesty.
[Deamakes a low curtsey, and holds out the letter. TheQueentakes it from her with a strange, stiff gesture.]
[Deamakes a low curtsey, and holds out the letter. TheQueentakes it from her with a strange, stiff gesture.]
Your Majesty, this is the missive sealing officially my tale.
Queen
[Reads the letter, her face played upon by expressions varying from incredulity to ironic joy. Turning toPhedro.]
[Reads the letter, her face played upon by expressions varying from incredulity to ironic joy. Turning toPhedro.]
There is no doubt about this?
Phedro[turning a page]
You note your Chancellor's signature.
Queen
[Finishes the letter and stands looking intently ahead of her. She suddenly speaks in a rather strange voice.]
[Finishes the letter and stands looking intently ahead of her. She suddenly speaks in a rather strange voice.]
I hate to be trite, but my inner laughter is far too loud to be tamed into wit; so I think I must use the stock phrase, and observe that truth is never so tedious as fiction. [she passes her hand over her brow] Come, clown, you may go, or rather my lord, you have my earnest leave to exchange our presence for the open air, while we sit in judgment over these discoveries. You may take the young lady with you, who apparently cannotsee [with a bitter look atCharles] the interest she evokes.
[GwymplanedragsDeaout half fainting, but turns in the door, facing them all.]
[GwymplanedragsDeaout half fainting, but turns in the door, facing them all.]
Gwymplane
Take care. It is dangerous to be marionettes too long—even now your limbs may be turning into sawdust.
[They exit without paying theQueenrespect.]
[They exit without paying theQueenrespect.]
Queen
[Turning toPrince Charlesand then to theDuchess.]
[Turning toPrince Charlesand then to theDuchess.]
How very uncomfortable he will make the House of Lords. Artists are terrible people, especially when they get out of theirmétier, and even if they were born gentlemen. [she takes a hand of theDuchessand ofCharles] I request you both to be in my cabinet tomorrow morning as early as you can manage to rouse yourselves after this rather full evening, and we shall see what it is fair to do in love [she glances softly and rather whimsically at thePrince] and war. [looking fixedly atJosephine]
[She throws both their hands away from her as if they had stung her. An equerry opens the door, and she exits abruptly.]Princeand theDuchess [bowing low to her departing back and murmuring]:
[She throws both their hands away from her as if they had stung her. An equerry opens the door, and she exits abruptly.]Princeand theDuchess [bowing low to her departing back and murmuring]:
Your Majesty is obeyed.
CURTAIN
[It is night upon the deck of a small schooner, whose sails are outlined against leaden streaks, commencing to herald the dawn.Dealies extended upon a low couch, beside the chair ofUrsus. In the dim light her form possesses the eternal majesty of sculpture. From afar the voices of sailors chanting some sad litany of the sea.Ursusleans back in his chair, looking up into the face of departing night.Gwymplanepaces in and out, anguished with unrest.]
[It is night upon the deck of a small schooner, whose sails are outlined against leaden streaks, commencing to herald the dawn.
Dealies extended upon a low couch, beside the chair ofUrsus. In the dim light her form possesses the eternal majesty of sculpture. From afar the voices of sailors chanting some sad litany of the sea.Ursusleans back in his chair, looking up into the face of departing night.Gwymplanepaces in and out, anguished with unrest.]
Ursus[toGwymplane, who hardly heeds him]
Nothing follows us. It never occurred to them that a man should want to escape good fortune. They never think to bolt the door when they have gilded the walls. O, how profitably one can surprise these people who think the entire world reflects their contemplation of self.
Gwymplane
[Who has not heard the preceding speech at all, comes in, halting abruptly.]
[Who has not heard the preceding speech at all, comes in, halting abruptly.]
Life, life. It has suddenly burst its leash—torn in among us like a mad dog and wounded us, mortally, I think, [glances atDea] O, the pain, the tragedy that can come out of nonsense. Will Dea live, can Dea live?
Ursus[sighing heavily]
Perhaps, perhaps. How quiet and smiling she looks. There is some great pathos about her peacefulness as if Heaven were restoring to her something cruelly lost in this world.
Gwymplane
[Walking over to her couch and wringing his hands.]
[Walking over to her couch and wringing his hands.]
My love, my little love.
[Ursusrising and soothing his agonized posture with a gentle hand, whichGwymplaneshakes off.]
[Ursusrising and soothing his agonized posture with a gentle hand, whichGwymplaneshakes off.]
Gwymplane
Oh, there seems no corner in myself into which I can creep, pull down the blinds, and shut out those horrible, jeering, grotesque,indecent processionals that I joined and made last night.
Ursus
My poor son! You threw your body to the jackals for an hour. You forgot there was a soul in your body to get mangled along with the rest.
Gwymplane
Oh, my soul was not in all that.
Ursus
Most people perish from thinking like you. [earnestly] Somewhere in you is a blinding, transfigured face, struggling up out of the sprawled, coiling limbs of infinite pasts, yet put it in certain conditions and it retains its fearful stamp of former bestiality. But during death, death the last condition we follow, what a likeness unto God appears upon the features of the worst of us.
Gwymplane[who is too tortured to hear]
Oh, how can I ever again catch at her lovely virginal hands? [he lifts one very gently] Her hands have the sudden beauty and strange fragrance of flowers that bloom among shadows.How can I ever press my lips against them again without bruising their dear shy softness by this weight of unworthiness I carry within me?
Ursus
Only through hope.
Gwymplane
Hope is for people who have not such keen noses as I. I can smell the decay in myself far too well to go near the person I love with it. Only to sleep, to sleep, and not have to make my way any more, through these biting, malicious, stifling memories. How can a man's soul exist after he knows what sodden morasses the body can clamp him into!
Ursus
Stumbling may teach a man to hold his lantern nearer the ground.
Gwymplane
My arms are broken. They cannot hold anything except despair.
Dea[stirring faintly]
[Ursusis immediately at her side and bends over her.Gwymplanestands looking down over the back of her couch.]
[Ursusis immediately at her side and bends over her.Gwymplanestands looking down over the back of her couch.]
How fast we are going! What are we on that is moving so swiftly?
Ursus
We are sailing away, Dea, you, Gwymplane, and I, toward happiness and safety.
Dea
I have always been happy, until——
[She puts her hand on her heart.Gwymplanewinces.]
[She puts her hand on her heart.Gwymplanewinces.]
Ursus[speaking gently]
Let me put my hand across your forehead and smooth you back into dreams as I used to when you were a child. That will be best.
Dea
I wonder, have I not passed what is best. You say that I am on a boat, but it seems to me I am going somewhere by myself, swiftly, eagerly, and that I am carrying my love for Gwymplane like a sheaf of lilies under my arm.
[Gwymplanebends over, whispering her name out of the bursting anguish of his heart.]
[Gwymplanebends over, whispering her name out of the bursting anguish of his heart.]
Gwymplane, I feel your breath across my cheek. I feel your tears upon my face. Oh, why are you crying?
Gwymplane
My love, my dear love, there is too much beauty about you. You are an answer to the last wish of a man's heart that blows him over the gates of Paradise. Anyone would weep if the face of God were to shine out suddenly through their prayers.
Dea
Oh, I understand all that. I have felt that so often about you.
[She puts her hand tenderly on his. Suddenly she raises herself on her elbow.]
[She puts her hand tenderly on his. Suddenly she raises herself on her elbow.]
Gwymplane! Ursus! I think—I think I am about to see! There are bright stretches of colour beginning behind my eyes.
[She lifts herself into a sitting position, stretching out her arms. There is a long pause.]
[She lifts herself into a sitting position, stretching out her arms. There is a long pause.]
O, I do see, I see!