University of Virginia Library

DIALOGUE VI.

Scene. Lady Ackland's door.

Lady Ackland.

Married!—His wife?—Well, I think
I'll not try to sleep again. There goes Orion with
his starry girdle.—Married—is he?

Maid.

Was not that Captain Maitland that was talking
here just now, Lady Harriet?

Lady A.

Go to bed, Margaret,—go to bed,—but look
you though. To-morrow with the dawn that furnishing
gear we left in the tent must be unpacked, and this
empty room—whose wife, think you, is my guest tomorrow,
Margaret?

Maid.

Bless me! If I were to guess till daylight, my
lady—

Lady A.

This young Maitland, you think so handsome,
Margaret—

Maid.

I?—la, it was not I, my lady, I am sure.

Lady A.

—He will bring us his wife home here tomorrow,
a young and beautiful wife.

Maid.

Wife?—

Lady A.

Poor child,—we must give her a gentle welcome.
Do you remember those flowers we saw in the
glen as we passed?—I will send for them in the morning,

and we will fill the vacant hearth with these blossoming
boughs.—

Maid.

But, here—in these woods, a wife!—where on
earth will he bring her from, my lady?

Lady A.

Ay, we shall see, to-morrow we shall see,
—go dream the rest.

[Exit the maid.

Lady A.

Who would have thought it?—so cold and
proud he seemed, so scornful of our sex.—And yet I
knew something there lay beneath it all.—Even in that
wild, gay mood, when the light of mirth filled and o'erflowed
those splendid eyes,—deeper still, I saw always
the calm sorrow-beam shining within.

That picture he showed me—how pretty it was!—
The face haunts me with its look of beseeching loveliness.—Was
there anything so sorrowful about it though?
—Nay, the look was a smile, and yet a strange mournfulness
clings to my thought of it now. Well, if the painter
hath not dissembled in it—the painter?—no. The
spirit of those eyes was of no painter's making. From
the Eidos of the Heavenly Mind sprung that.

I shall see her to-morrow.—Nay, I must meet her in
the outskirts of the camp,—so went my promise,—if
Maitland be not here ere then.

[Exit.