University of Virginia Library

Scene III.

Raymond—to him Carlton.
CARLTON
(taking Raymond's hand and looking earnestly at him)
How fare you? Am I welcome?

RAYMOND
I am as one
Who having pined across the long bare sea
Comes passionate and homesick to the shore
But dares not set his foot there lest he hear
That some dear place is empty, and for him
The fair familiar pleasantness of earth
Become a desolation.

CARLTON
You do well
To face the worst beforehand, trying thus
The strength of weapons which you may not need.

RAYMOND
I know their strength. There is no worst for him
Who has not seen the sun for twenty years.
Say that you fail—your time, your skill, your hope
Are wasted, and your wreath must lose a rose;
Full bitter are the tears of baffled men
Though shameless their defeat. Pity yourself!
But if you say to me those dreadful words
‘Be blind for ever! I can do no more!’
You do not thrust me to that outer dark,
You leave me only where I was before,
Where I am quite at home.

CARLTON
So would I have you;
Strong, tranquil, ready. I may tell you now
All things are ripe for our experiment
Time, practice, place. If you can go with me
To-day—

RAYMOND
I am ready now.

CARLTON
Why, so am I.

RAYMOND
But, Carlton, when we talked of this before
You told me of a man, blind like myself
For twenty years, and by the same disease,
Whose case at every point so matched with mine
That if you tried your remedy on him
And after came to me, we might be likened
To vessels measured in one mould, and you
Filling the first with hesitating hand
Can estimate the second to a drop.
Did you not tell me this?

CARLTON
'Tis true. I did.

RAYMOND
And have you tried this remedy on him?

CARLTON
I tried it.

RAYMOND
The result?

CARLTON
Almost I fear
To tell you.

RAYMOND
You have told it. He has heard
That sentence of irrevocable doom.
Tell me it was a chance, that prizes come
Most surely after blanks, that difference
Lurks undetected in the likest things,
And I, despairing not from his mishap,
May find a fairer close—but, tell the truth,
He shall be blind for ever.

CARLTON
Man, he sees! [Raymond starts and covers his face with his hands.

Why have you forced it from me? I was bent
To hold you from excess of confidence.
Men die of overfulness as of want.
Besides, that small invisible difference
May (mark, I do not say it will!) may lead
To different issues. Be not over-bold.
What, Raymond, what? You weep.

RAYMOND
(recovering himself)
No!

CARLTON
Yet be calm;
Your health demands it.

RAYMOND
Why do you handle me
As if I were a woman, or a drug
In your laboratory, to be tempered
And analysed at will? You are to blame:
You should have told the truth at once. I feel
(Not for myself—I am calm about myself)
But for the Heaven which fell upon that man
Whom I have always likened to myself,
In one tremendous moment. Did it crush him?
How did he bear it?

CARLTON
Reasonably, friend;
'Tis distance that enlarges hope or fear;
They dwindle as they reach us; like the clouds
Which cover half a sky, but at our feet
Break into trivial raindrops. He was calm;
Men should be calm—

RAYMOND
O, then he was a fool
Not worth a question. Talk of him no more.
Stupidity is calmness out of place.
There's no sublimity in sitting still
While the house burns; and that philosopher
Who sees the world created, and is calm,
Is capable of nothing. Out upon him!
I'd have the first half inch of visible green
Choke him with ecstasy! Come, will you lead me?
We should be going.

CARLTON
Does your father know?

RAYMOND
Nothing. I am a prudent man, and hold
Suspense when shared is doubled.

CARLTON
Say you so?
Yet should your prudence be compassionate.
Your father loves you and is old—'tis hard
To leave him in this blank.

RAYMOND
You check me well.
The burden of my hope disables me
From care for others. Will you write for me?

CARLTON
(takes out his tablets)
What shall I write?

RAYMOND
(dictating)

‘My dear friends. Do not be uneasy about me. I am gone on a good errand and under good care, and you shall hear from me very soon. I am safe and content.’

CARLTON
'Tis done—and here your name!

RAYMOND
I pray you guide my fingers to the place.
I have a secret sign, whereby they know
The words are mine. Is this below the name? [Carlton places a pen in his hand.

So, 'tis authenticated.

CARLTON
But, the way
To reach them?

RAYMOND
On the right, some yards away,
There stands a rustic seat.

CARLTON
'Tis found.

RAYMOND
There place it;
She left me there—lay it beneath a stone
For safety.

CARLTON
(laughing)
Your instructions are minute,
Nothing escapes you.

RAYMOND
No. It is my pride
To see with others' eyes effectively.

[Exeunt Carlton and Raymond.