University of Virginia Library

Scene I.—A Room in Carlton's House.

Enter Grey and Vernon, meeting.
GREY
I did not think to see you here.

VERNON
I hope
I am not unwelcome. This excuses me— [He gives a letter.

This, and a friendship more than brotherhood.

GREY
(reading)

‘Raymond Grey entreats your presence at the Fair Lawns, at twelve o'clock on Tuesday the 7th of July,

to hear the result of an operation, from which he hopes for the recovery of sight.

VERNON
Nay, sir, I am dark as you:
He told me nothing. I have ever found him
Ready with feeling, reticent of fact;
Feeling, he says, is rounded with a word,
You know its end and outset; 'tis an air
Which, passing, stirs the leaves, but, having passed,
Affects not their resumed tranquillity;
But facts are living things—let them not loose;
You know not where they run, nor what they do,
Nor with what freight they come to you again;
And so he holds them prisoner.

GREY
So he talks,
But such philosophy is doublefaced.—
The invisible air is full of life and death;
We know not which we breathe, till the touched heart,
Quickening or pausing, tells, perchance too late,
What power has grazed its vital mystery.
Why, common speech proclaims it—deeds are done,
But each intangible immortal thought
May cause a million deeds, and sweep through Time,
Strewing its future harvests till the end
When the strong reapers garner all the fruit
And reckon all the seeds.

VERNON
You speak as one
Who knows the future.

GREY
I am near enough
To see it plainly. Every tract of Time
Swings like a ship with all its souls aboard
Across the next horizon; but the crew
See not their fate alike; some stand aloft
And from the watchful summit of their years
Scan all the field—some only see the sky,
Some, only the cleft water—dangerous guides
Wrecked by the details which they overlook
Or overestimate. I pile my words
Merely to smother time. Must we sit still?

VERNON
What should we do?

GREY
It is a sin, I know,
To wrest grasped secrets from the coming hour
And crush them ere they open—but such sins
Precede temptation, and are done and rued
Before we know they court us. Shall we talk
Of our conjectures? I have noted him
Full of those starts and pauses which bewray
A brooding soul. I let them pass. I knew
He bore a heavy load. The moods and mists
Of one who suffers should be questionless;
He may pass through them into purer air,
But none can show him how. He stumbled on,
Crutched by a girl's unmeaning sympathy,
Which men will welcome when they turn from men.
She knew no more than I. Ha! here she comes
With her wise ignorance.

Enter Hope, followed by Avice.
HOPE
Father!

GREY
Why, what now?
Was there a ghost in your path?

HOPE
O no, an angel
Setting Heaven open. But I fear, I fear,
If, having seen what may be, I return
Only to keep what was, I should be found
Not strong enough to comfort him. O father,
Will you not tell me what you hope? Tell nothing! [Stopping her ears

I will not hear you if you speak. O, peace!
You shall not—nay, you must not!

GREY
So, so, so!
This is our heroine—take away your hands,
I am not one to play the headsman's part
Without commission. Child, be satisfied,
I too await the dawn.

HOPE
What can we do?
Methinks my soul is faithless. I should pray,
But I so quake and totter on this edge
That not a thought has room to shape itself.
Now God forgive me.

Enter Avice.
AVICE
Amen for us all.
Come, you white penitent, and show your sins:
They must be dreadful since you hide them so
That none can guess their names.

GREY
Are you come too?

AVICE
I know I have no place here—let me stay—
I'll hide in a teacup.

HOPE
(taking her hand)
You shall stay by me.
I know you are as earnest in your smiles
As we, with all our weeping.

AVICE
Truly spoken;
A woman I, amazed with gratitude
If I find merely justice.

Enter Carlton.
CARLTON
Welcome all.

GREY
No man says welcome to a funeral;
What is your news?

CARLTON
The best.

GREY
(shouting)
He sees!

HOPE
Where is he?

[As she rushes to the door Carlton interposes. Hope, starting back, falls on her knees. Avice goes to her.
AVICE
Quick, or she faints!

HOPE
No, no—no word of me—
Tell me, or take me to him! I forgot
To give God thanks.

CARLTON
A moment's patience, friends,
Before you greet him. You shall understand
That all is as you wish; he sees; he is well;
He is here—nay, gently! I have got a charge
To speak to you from him.

HOPE
O for a leap
Across this wordy chasm! I have no sense.
Until I reach him.

GREY
Nay, we'll listen for you
And teach you afterwards. (To Carlton.)
Say on.

CARLTON
'Tis thus.
This lady holds the measure of his wish [showing Hope.

And can discern my failures. He has vowed
More to himself than her, that her fair face
Shall be his sunrise; and so jealously
Hath he maintained his vow, that with bound eyes
In voluntary darkness, like a man
Reprieved not pardoned, he awaits the look
Which shall proclaim his freedom.

GREY
(to Hope, who is still on her knees)
Stay you there;
We lack the time to contradict this whim—
We'll stand aside. Now, doctor, lead him in;
We are all marshalled.

[Exit Carlton.
HOPE
(who has been hiding her face, looking up)
I know not why I am afraid to see
Until he sees me. While his eyes were dark
Mine were his weapons—they seem useless now
Except for tears of joy.

AVICE
A sorry welcome!
You should laugh out, like sunshine.

HOPE
I might fear,
Being so weak, to be nothing to him now,
But in the strength and sureness of his love
I am armoured from all doubts.

GREY
Peace! peace! he comes.