Woman on Her Own, False Gods and The Red Robe Part 53

STEWARD. What?

BITIOU. A woman.

STEWARD. By force?

BITIOU. No woman would come willingly with Bitiou.

SOKITI. But she escaped from him.

BITIOU. Yes. [_He weeps_].

SATNI. You must give back the necklace and this bracelet to the neighboring master.

NOURM. Give back, but he has others!

SATNI. You cannot make yourself the judge of that. If you were selling perfumes, for instance, would you think it natural that a man should come and take them from you, because you had plenty and he had none?

NOURM. You tell me hard things.

SATNI. You must give back this bracelet, Sokiti.

SOKITI. Yes, master.

SATNI. And you the necklace.

NOURM. Yes, master.

_A sorrowful pause._

SATNI. See, you are sad. You perceive that you did wrong.

SOKITI. Yes, we did wrong--

SATNI. Ah!

SOKITI. We did wrong to tell you what we did, because you are not pleased.

SATNI. 'Tis for your sake I am grieved.

NOURM. Then you have not told the truth; there is a h.e.l.l, and there is an island of souls.

SATNI. No.

NOURM. If the G.o.ds do not punish, and men, not having seen, do not punish either--[_Pause_] Well--I shall give it back.

SOKITI. I, I shall not give back. Not stolen. Another, a servant of the neighboring master stole the bracelet, not I!

STEWARD. Yet 'tis you who have it.

SOKITI. I took it from the other.

STEWARD. He let you do it?

SOKITI. Yes. Could not help it, he was wounded.

SATNI. You should have succored him.

SOKITI. I did not know him.

SATNI. He was a man like you.

SOKITI. There are plenty of them.

SATNI. We must do good to others.

SOKITI. What good will that do to me?

SATNI. You will be content with yourself.

SOKITI. I would rather have the bracelet--

SATNI. It is only by refraining from doing one another harm that mankind may hope to gain happiness; nay more, only by lending one another aid.

Do you understand?

SOKITI [_gloomily_] Yes.

SATNI. And you, and you--

NOURM AND BITIOU [_in different tones_] Yes, yes.

STEWARD [_to Sokiti_] Repeat it then.

SOKITI. If men did not steal bracelets--

STEWARD. Well?

SOKITI. Bracelets--[_He laughs_].

SATNI [_to Nourm_] And you?

NOURM. He was wrong to take the bracelet.

SATNI. Why?

NOURM. Because you are not pleased.

SATNI. No, no, 'tis not for that.