Complete Short Works of George Meredith Part 71

ARDEN: Perfect freedom?

ASTRAEA: Perfect!

ARDEN: No!

ASTRAEA: Am I awake? What blinds me?

ARDEN: Filaments The slenderest ever woven about a brain From the brain's mists, by the little sprite called Fancy.

A breath would scatter them; but that one breath Must come of animation. When the heart Is as, a frozen sea the brain spins webs.

ASTRAEA: 'Tis very singular!

I understand.

You translate cleverly. I hear in verse My uncle Homeware's prose. He has these notions.

Old men presume to read us.

ARDEN: Young men may.

You gaze on an ideal reflecting you Need I say beautiful? Yet it reflects Less beauty than the lady whom I love Breathes, radiates. Look on yourself in me.

What harm in gazing? You are this flower You are that spirit. But the spirit fed With substance of the flower takes all its bloom!

And where in spirits is the bloom of the flower?

ASTRAEA: 'Tis very singular. You have a tone Quite changed.

ARDEN: You wished a change. To show you, how I read you...

ASTRAEA: Oh! no, no. It means dissection.

I never heard of reading character That did not mean dissection. Spare me that.

I am wilful, violent, capricious, weak, Wound in a web of my own spinning-wheel, A star-gazer, a riband in the wind...

ARDEN: A banner in the wind! and me you lead, And shall! At least, I follow till I win.

ASTRAEA: Forbear, I do beseech you.

ARDEN: I have had Your hand in mine.

ASTRAEA: Once.

ARDEN: Once!

Once! 'twas; once, was the heart alive, Leaping to break the ice. Oh! once, was aye That laughed at frosty May like spring's return.

Say you are terrorized: you dare not melt.

You like me; you might love me; but to dare, Tasks more than courage. Veneration, friends, Self-wors.h.i.+p, which is often self-distrust, Bar the good way to you, and make a dream A fortress and a prison.

ASTRAEA: Changed! you have changed Indeed. When you so boldly seized my hand It seemed a boyish freak, done boyishly.

I wondered at Professor Spiral's choice Of you for an example, and our hope.

Now you grow dangerous. You must have thought, And some things true you speak-save 'terrorized.'

It may be flattering to sweet self-love To deem me terrorized.--'Tis my own soul, My heart, my mind, all that I hold most sacred, Not fear of others, bids me walk aloof.

Who terrorizes me? Who could? Friends? Never!

The world? as little. Terrorized!

ARDEN: Forgive me.

ASTRAEA: I might reply, Respect me. If I loved, If I could be so faithless as to love, Think you I would not rather noise abroad My shame for penitence than let friends dwell Deluded by an image of one vowed To superhuman, who the common mock Of things too human has at heart become.

ARDEN: You would declare your love?

ASTRAEA: I said, my shame.

The woman that's the widow is ensnared, Caught in the toils! away with widows!--Oh!

I hear men shouting it.

ARDEN: But shame there's none For me in loving: therefore I may take Your friends to witness? tell them that my pride Is in the love of you?

ASTRAEA: 'Twill soon bring The silence that should be between us two, And sooner give me peace.

ARDEN: And you consent?

ASTRAEA: For the sake of peace and silence I consent, You should be warned that you will cruelly Disturb them. But 'tis best. You should be warned Your pleading will be hopeless. But 'tis best.

You have my full consent. Weigh well your acts, You cannot rest where you have cast this bolt Lay that to heart, and you are cherished, prized, Among them: they are estimable ladies, Warmest of friends; though you may think they soar Too loftily for your measure of strict sense (And as my uncle Homeware's pupil, sir, In worldliness, you do), just minds they have: Once know them, and your banishment will fret.

I would not run such risks. You will offend, Go near to outrage them; and perturbate As they have not deserved of you. But I, Considering I am nothing in the scales You balance, quite and of necessity Consent. When you have weighed it, let me hear.

My uncle Homeware steps this way in haste.

We have been talking long, and in full view!

SCENE VII

ASTRAEA, ARDEN, HOMEWARE

HOMEWARE: Astraea, child! You, Arden, stand aside.

Ay, if she were a maid you might speak first, But being a widow she must find her tongue.

Astraea, they await you. State the fact As soon as you are questioned, fearlessly.

Open the battle with artillery.

ASTRAEA: What is the matter, uncle Homeware?

HOMEWARE (playing fox): What?

Why, we have watched your nice preliminaries From the windows half the evening. Now run in.

Their patience has run out, and, as I said, Unlimber and deliver fire at once.

Your aunts Virginia and Winifred, With Lady Oldlace, are the senators, The Dame for Dogs. They wear terrific brows, But be not you affrighted, my sweet chick, And tell them uncle Homeware backs your choice, By lawyer and by priests! by altar, fount, And testament!

ASTRAEA: My choice! what have I chosen?

HOMEWARE: She asks? You hear her, Arden?--what and whom!

ARDEN: Surely, sir!... heavens! have you...

HOMEWARE: Surely the old fox, In all I have read, is wiser than the young: And if there is a game for fox to play, Old fox plays cunningest.

ASTRAEA: Why fox? Oh! uncle, You make my heart beat with your mystery; I never did love riddles. Why sit they Awaiting me, and looking terrible?

HOMEWARE: It is reported of an ancient folk Which wors.h.i.+pped idols, that upon a day Their idol pitched before them on the floor