University of Virginia Library

Scene IV

Enter Vernon.
Vernon—Avice.
VERNON
I have performed your bidding—

AVICE
(interrupting)
True—I know it.
Friend, listen, for the need is great. You found
All that we feared?

VERNON
I fear he loves her not.

AVICE
Tut! Drive the dagger home—there's not a pulse
In all his round of days that's true to her!

VERNON
Speak not of truth and him, if this be so.
I hold him for the prince of treachery.

AVICE
O, let that pass—the question is of her.

VERNON
Aye and her doom was near. The bridal day
Is fixed.

AVICE
When? When?

VERNON
I break a seal to tell you.
Well—in a week.

AVICE
Then, save her! She's alone
In that green garden-temple where she sits
And weaves her daily liturgies. Go there
And tell her—you that love her, should be bold
To risk for her a little more than this.

VERNON
Can I that love her slay her with a word?

AVICE
Nay, but the surgeon, with a tender hand
Wounds, to preserve from death.

VERNON
How are you sure?
If we have erred in this—

AVICE
We have not erred.
Question not; take the certainty!

VERNON
But how—

AVICE
I dare not tell you how I know this thing.

VERNON
From his own lips?

AVICE
Yes—no—denial's vain!
From his own lips!

VERNON
Then should you tell the tale.

AVICE
O, Vernon, I'm a woman and I cannot.
Go you and speak the bitter thing you know;
Hide nothing, bid her seek him on the instant;
The fire of her quick coming shall compel
The fact, and though she suffers, she is saved.
Be such a friend as can afflict a friend—
There's nothing greater.

VERNON
Would I could be sure
That not a hope or fear about myself
Moves me at all; yet Avice, yet, I know
That since it is of right to break this bond,
The breaking stirs me with a secret thrill
That may become a hope.

AVICE
It shall be more.
You, her consoler, shall instruct her heart
Where it may rest.

VERNON
I go.

[Exit Vernon.
AVICE
(alone)
The deed is done.
There was no hand but mine, and there's no stain; [Looking ruefully at her hand.

Inevitable things are never sin,
And only breed remorse in feeble hearts.
The prince of treachery! A hideous name!
I'll trust him. O! how terribly I trust him!
He shall be true hereafter. We who hate
This barrier which an angry doom hath built
About the proper garden of our lives
Can cross it, and forget it, and be true
On the far flowery side of it, together!

[Exit Avice. Scene changes, and discovers a place in the Garden before the entrance to a Summerhouse.