TRESHAM.He lacked wit?Where might he lack wit,so please you?
GUENDOLEN.In standing straighter than the steward's rod And making you the tiresomest harangue,Instead of slipping over to my side And softly whispering in my ear,"Sweet lady,Your cousin there will do me detriment He little dreams of:he's absorbed,I see,In my old name and fame--be sure he'll leave My Mildred,when his best account of me Is ended,in full confidence I wear My grandsire's periwig down either cheek.
I'm lost unless your gentleness vouchsafes"...
TRESHAM..."To give a best of best accounts,yourself,Of me and my demerits."You are right!
He should have said what now I say for him.
Yon golden creature,will you help us all?
Here's Austin means to vouch for much,but you --You are...what Austin only knows!Come up,All three of us:she's in the library No doubt,for the day's wearing fast.Precede!
GUENDOLEN.Austin,how we must--!
TRESHAM.Must what?Must speak truth,Malignant tongue!Detect one fault in him!
I challenge you!
GUENDOLEN.Witchcraft's a fault in him,For you're bewitched.
TRESHAM.What's urgent we obtain Is,that she soon receive him--say,to-morrow--,Next day at furthest.
GUENDOLEN.Ne'er instruct me!
TRESHAM.Come!
--He's out of your good graces,since forsooth,He stood not as he'd carry us by storm With his perfections!You're for the composed Manly assured becoming confidence!
--Get her to say,"to-morrow,"and I'll give you...
I'll give you black Urganda,to be spoiled With petting and snail-paces.Will you?Come!
SCENE III.
--MILDRED'S Chamber.A Painted Window overlooks the Park MILDRED and GUENDOLEN
GUENDOLEN.Now,Mildred,spare those pains.I have not left Our talkers in the library,and climbed The wearisome ascent to this your bower In company with you,--I have not dared...
Nay,worked such prodigies as sparing you Lord Mertoun's pedigree before the flood,Which Thorold seemed in very act to tell --Or bringing Austin to pluck up that most Firm-rooted heresy--your suitor's eyes,He would maintain,were grey instead of blue--
I think I brought him to contrition!--Well,I have not done such things,(all to deserve A minute's quiet cousin's talk with you,)
To be dismissed so coolly.
MILDRED.Guendolen!
What have I done?what could suggest...
GUENDOLEN.There,there!
Do I not comprehend you'd be alone To throw those testimonies in a heap,Thorold's enlargings,Austin's brevities,With that poor silly heartless Guendolen's Ill-time misplaced attempted smartnesses--
And sift their sense out?now,I come to spare you Nearly a whole night's labour.Ask and have!
Demand,be answered!Lack I ears and eyes?
Am I perplexed which side of the rock-table The Conqueror dined on when he landed first,Lord Mertoun's ancestor was bidden take--
The bow-hand or the arrow-hand's great meed?
Mildred,the Earl has soft blue eyes!
MILDRED.My brother--
Did he...you said that he received him well?
GUENDOLEN.If I said only "well"I said not much.
Oh,stay--which brother?
MILDRED.Thorold!who--Who else?
GUENDOLEN.Thorold (a secret)is too proud by half,--
Nay,hear me out--with us he's even gentler Than we are with our birds.Of this great House The least retainer that e'er caught his glance Would die for him,real dying--no mere talk:
And in the world,the court,if men would cite The perfect spirit of honour,Thorold's name Rises of its clear nature to their lips.
But he should take men's homage,trust in it,And care no more about what drew it down.
He has desert,and that,acknowledgment;
Is he content?
MILDRED.You wrong him,Guendolen.
GUENDOLEN.He's proud,confess;so proud with brooding o'er The light of his interminable line,An ancestry with men all paladins,And women all...
MILDRED.Dear Guendolen,'tis late!
When yonder purple pane the climbing moon Pierces,I know 'tis midnight.
GUENDOLEN.Well,that Thorold Should rise up from such musings,and receive One come audaciously to graft himself Into this peerless stock,yet find no flaw,No slightest spot in such an one...
MILDRED.Who finds A spot in Mertoun?
GUENDOLEN.Not your brother;therefore,Not the whole world.
MILDRED.I am weary,Guendolen.
Bear with me!
GUENDOLEN.I am foolish.
MILDRED.Oh no,kind!
But I would rest.
GUENDOLEN.Good night and rest to you!
I said how gracefully his mantle lay Beneath the rings of his light hair?
MILDRED.Brown hair.
GUENDOLEN.Brown?why,it IS brown:how could you know that?
MILDRED.How?did not you--Oh,Austin 'twas,declared His hair was light,not brown--my head!--and look,The moon-beam purpling the dark chamber!Sweet,Good night!
GUENDOLEN.Forgive me--sleep the soundlier for me!
[Going,she turns suddenly.]
Mildred!
Perdition!all's discovered!Thorold finds --That the Earl's greatest of all grandmothers Was grander daughter still--to that fair dame Whose garter slipped down at the famous dance!
[Goes.]
MILDRED.Is she--can she be really gone at last?
My heart!I shall not reach the window.Needs Must I have sinned much,so to suffer.
[She lifts the small lamp which is suspended before the Virgin's image in the window,and places it by the purple pane.]
There!
[She returns to the seat in front.]
Mildred and Mertoun!Mildred,with consent Of all the world and Thorold,Mertoun's bride!
Too late!'Tis sweet to think of,sweeter still To hope for,that this blessed end soothes up The curse of the beginning;but I know It comes too late:'twill sweetest be of all To dream my soul away and die upon.
[A noise without.]
The voice!Oh why,why glided sin the snake Into the paradise Heaven meant us both?
[The window opens softly.A low voice sings.]
There's a woman like a dew-drop,she's so purer than the purest;
And her noble heart's the noblest,yes,and her sure faith's the surest:
And her eyes are dark and humid,like the depth on depth of lustre Hid i'the harebell,while her tresses,sunnier than the wild-grape cluster,Gush in golden tinted plenty down her neck's rose-misted marble: