University of Virginia Library

Scene IV.—A Boudoir in Grey's House.

Enter Two Maids with a white bridal veil and wreath.
FIRST MAID

Set it just here where she cannot fail to see it as she comes in. So—that fold falls sweetly—and the blossom is as soft and delicate as a babe's cheek. (She draws back and contemplates them after arranging

them upon a chair.)
One would think a girl must like to look at that.

SECOND MAID

But she did not give so much as a glance at the gown. She stood still and let us fit it upon her as though she were but trying it for another; and she looked straightforward and seemed to see nothing— there was no heart in her eyes—they were as far off and as empty as stars. If this is the proper way to be married I pray Heaven keep me single!

FIRST MAID

You need not waste a prayer on that. But it is strange, for she has no home to leave, and she has loved him from her childhood. I think it is but a girl's fear of unknown happiness: she was ever a timid soul; she would curdle at sour words—nay, a sharp look would pierce her.

SECOND MAID

Ah, she's too gentle for this world!

FIRST MAID

Do not say so; it sounds like bad prophesying. Stay, here she comes.

SECOND MAID

I'll not face her. She wants a woman to give her courage for this leap, and you, who have been about her from her childhood, should stay by her now. Perhaps she may open herself to you with no listener near.

[Exit Second Maid.
Enter Hope with downcast eyes and clasped hands. She comes slowly to the front, and does not perceive the veil or the maid.
HOPE
[Weeps,
[She perceives the dress and wreath.

MAID
(advancing)
Dear lady, I;
Thinking to please you. Something makes you sad
With more than maiden's fear; I know not what,
But surer hands than mine must sweep it from you;
Take heart, take heart—will you not see your friends?
There's one who thinks all hours are blank without you.

HOPE
Was it your hand? O friend, I dreamt you loved me!
I think there's no one loves me in the world;
There's some quick poison in my blood, that breathes
On all beginning tenderness, and slays it
Before it come to growth, or grow to love.
Why was I made so terrible? But you—
I asked nought from you—wherefore should you mock me?

MAID
Mock you, sweet heart? Alas, your words are wild!

HOPE
I have begun to hate myself, because
I have so failed. I would I knew my fault
That let the life so slip out of my hands;
Weak hands, false futile hands, letting that slip
Which most they clung to—they hold nothing now;
Now and henceforward through all empty days.
'Twas not slight care, nor loose forgetfulness,
Nor any lack of love—would 'twere the last
So were I healed! But I'll not scorn myself,
I that have nothing left except myself,
To face my sorrow with that cold sad strength
Which says ‘I've not deserved it,’ when Despair
Answers again, ‘What matter, since you have it?’ [Clock strikes.

It is the hour I named! They will be here.
Look at me; am I calm? is my hair smooth?
I would have no disorder in my looks
For this farewell. Death is the sum of life;
My poor brief story, as I shut the book,
Should show no blotted, no unworthy page;
The last words should be seemly as the first,
No difference, except 'twixt joy and grief,
As the tale darkens from its opening hopes
Unto this simple sorrowful conclusion.
See, they are come!

Enter Avice and Raymond from opposite sides. They start on perceiving each other.
AVICE
Cousin, you sent for me;
I thought, for some slight colloquy of dress
Or colour, for to-morrow—but I see
You are better companied. I'll not disturb you.

[Drawing back.
HOPE
(taking her hand)
Stay.

RAYMOND
'Tis for me to go. I'm all adrift
In these divine discussions.

HOPE
(holding out her hand to him)
Nay, I want you.
Here—both—together. Do you fear my hand?
Are we so far as that? Take it—you'll find
It holds you lightly.

RAYMOND
(taking her hand)
Must I not call it mine
Before to-morrow? Would you chaffer with me
For such a sum of minutes?

HOPE
I beseech you
Not in that tone! I am about to go
Into a solitude, where I shall have
Only a picture for my company,
No living face such as I used to read,
Perhaps not truly—yet undoubtingly—
Keep me my picture fair!

RAYMOND
I cannot guess
Your meaning.

HOPE
[She joins their hands.

AVICE
(trying to extricate herself)
Fie, fie!
This is unseemly jesting. Must I count
For nothing in these changes?

HOPE
Nothing, Avice?
Why, you are all! Be happy! I was blind
When I was happy—now, alas! I see.
Pitiless Light, that hast revealed my path,
Do not grow dim till I have finished it!

RAYMOND
But, Hope—

HOPE
(shuddering)
Ah, Raymond!

RAYMOND
Avice, help—she faints!

HOPE
(recovering herself)
You should have named me in another voice;
Not the old voice, not that—let me not hear it
Again before I die. I'll tell you quietly
If you will listen. 'Tis not reasonable
That words should be more difficult than deeds,
Yet so they are. I know you love me not;
Hush! I unclosed the casket where I kept
My jewels, and found it empty. How they went
I care not—they are gone. And I would thank you,
Only my voice is weak, yet I do thank you,
For that you pitied me, and would have spared me
At such a price as paying down yourself
Without the heart—so, worthless. I must tell you
I would refuse my life at such a price,
Aye, would go brightly to my grave to-morrow
Sooner than mock my soul with such a bridal.
Have I said all? There's yet farewell to say—
Farewell to both—in charity with both,
With no petition but to be forgotten;
As you forget a face, which for one hour
Came like a cloud between your light and you,
But, finding out the shadow that it made,
As a cloud passes, passed, and came no more.

RAYMOND
Shall we part so? Though you reproach me not,
The intolerable sweetness of your scorn
Destroys me. True, I'm guilty—hold me vile
As feverous breath from which you turn your face
Lest it infect you—

HOPE
(interrupting)
Nay, I said not so.

RAYMOND
Away with words, I answer to your thoughts.
Am I not judged? Yet what could I have done?
It was defect of nature, having known
Your excellence, to take another love;
But Passion is not born nor ruled by Will;
It rises like the unconquerable tide,
And sweeps a life before it as the sand.
Was I a god to stay it? What could I do?

HOPE
I have no skill to say what men should do,
But Constancy's the test of noble thoughts;
You should have been what I believed you.

AVICE
(to Raymond)
Cease;
We can but wound her more.

HOPE
O, more you wound me
By ‘we’ and ‘her’ than by a mile of proofs
Which might be wider of their arguments
Than that unanswerable carelessness
Which drops the sudden Truth before my feet.

AVICE
Pardon me.

HOPE
You are pardoned. Nay, I'm hard.
Cousin, I think you did not mean me wrong
(to Avice
As you stand now, I see there is no help;
More, having passed that barrier, you have done
Whatever was not made impossible;
You have encountered me with gentleness
And would have drugged me into lifelong sleep
With not a grain more falsehood than you must.
I thank mine Angel that I waked in time,
Else would you be as I am—worse i' the Past
But better in the Future. Not my will
Is bitter, but my words against my will
Put on unconscious bitterness. I hear them
As if another spoke, and think them cruel,
But cannot make them false. I'll think of you
More kindly, cousin, when I see you not.
I meant to smooth this parting. I would fain
Be one of those meek souls, who, when new Death
Wrenches a life into two bleeding halves
Cover their eyes and think they are content
To grope among the ruins. I'm not yet
As I would be; I am not yet acquainted
With my strange darkness—in a year, perhaps,
A month, a day, I shall know all. To-morrow—
I shall be calm and rational to-morrow;
To-morrow is the first tremendous day
When we shall wake to what is henceforth true,
And shall be soon familiar as the dawn
Which never wakens us again without it.
I want to-morrow for my remedy,
It's all new now.

RAYMOND
This is my punishment:
The vengeance is not slow.

AVICE
(clinging to him)
O, leave her! leave her!

HOPE
Is he not gone? I see no face I know;
The world is full of strangers—my sweet world
That was so full of love.

Enter Grey hastily.
GREY
What! Are you here?
What, in her presence? O you innocent child!
Here is the vilest, blackest, bitterest, treason
That ever broke a heart!

HOPE
Father!

GREY
Your father,
But never his again. Out of our sight!
See here, my dove, my flower—I'll keep you safe
From such as he who would have cheated you
To the altar steps. They had made all things sure: [pointing to Raymond and Avice.

They were to fly to-night—to-night, do you hear?
Aye, on the very threshold of his vow,
Leaving his lily here, he would have gone
With that foul poison-plant upon his breast—
O, you are matched! My curse upon you both!

HOPE
(to Raymond)
Was this your mercy? Say it is not true!

GREY
Blister your lips with any decent lie,
And she'll believe you!

[Raymond shrinks and covers his face with his hands, Avice still clinging to him.
HOPE
You have killed me now;
You have taken all from me, even my thoughts.
I had still remembrances; still even my love;
I had no cause to be ashamed of love
Who gave it after wooing. All is lost:
All lovely days and faiths innumerable,
Which made up all my life, lie in this tomb,
This tomb whereon I dare not write a word,
Because there is no word to write upon it
But false, false, false!

GREY
Aye false a thousand times.

HOPE
Do not say that again. Take me away.
Father, he could not mean it! Father, hide me!

[She looks once at Raymond, then turns away and falls on his father's neck.