Clair de Lune Part 24

Dear child, naturally, I accept your conviction that there is no one about, but I do not trust your memory. I admire too much the artist in you for that. Ah! Do I hear someone scratching apologetically upon the window? [_smiling_] Really, no wonder your sense of privacy is outraged tonight.

d.u.c.h.eSS

Who now?

PRINCE [_in a slightly frantic voice_]

I, Josephine. Did anyone pa.s.s in by this window a few minutes ago?

d.u.c.h.eSS

[_Looking at the QUEEN, whose ironic countenance struggles with real emotion._]

Who should? You perceive the curtains are drawn.

PRINCE

A girl--one of the troupe of mountebanks--a blind girl. Phedro brought her in with a most important letter for the Queen. He left her a moment, returned, and she was gone. He hesitated to disturb you at this late hour; so I told him I would come myself and ask.

QUEEN [_suddenly speaking in a tone of relief_]

Ah, with a note for me. Is it only that? For Heaven's sake, don't go on talking through a closed window, Charles. It gives such an air of tension to everything. Josephine, open the window to Charles.

[_Josephine obeys._]

PRINCE

[_Stepping into the room so befogged with his own agitation as to have no room left for astonishment at the presence of the QUEEN._]

Josephine, your Majesty, are you quite sure----

d.u.c.h.eSS

My dear Charles, do you think I am in the habit of not noticing the intrusion of perfectly strange women into my apartment at night?

PRINCE

Then you saw no one?

[_d.u.c.h.eSS smiles enigmatically._]

QUEEN [_addressing the PRINCE_]

Why are you so anxious that this message from the blind girl is delayed? Or are you just naturally upset about everything tonight, being so near the altar?

d.u.c.h.eSS

Ah, yes, so near the altar. Tell me how have you spent these last free hours, Charles?

QUEEN

I hope you have spent them romantically, fingering a lute or something.

d.u.c.h.eSS

Fingering something--was it a lute, Charles?

[_CHARLES glances at the d.u.c.h.eSS in alarm. The QUEEN intercepts the look and grows a little uneasy herself._]

QUEEN

You seem to be throwing dirt at one another out of a bonbonniere. I have a feeling I should extremely dislike to hear you actually explain yourselves. I wonder where Phedro is. He has hinted to me of extraordinary news for tonight. [_she opens the window and looks out_]

And now it is almost dawn.

[_She calls PHEDRO, and opens the door through which she has entered the room, calling PHEDRO._]

VOICE OF PHEDRO

Majesty, I come.

[_He enters. The d.u.c.h.eSS gives him a fearful look, which he returns with a grim smile._]

QUEEN

You promised significant news for me after midnight and in the apartment of the d.u.c.h.ess. I have come. It is long beyond midnight.

What have you to say?

PHEDRO

We are strictly in private, your Majesty?

QUEEN

a.s.sure yourself. I had some feeling about it myself a few minutes ago.

[_PHEDRO steps at once to the door where the mountebank is concealed, but the d.u.c.h.eSS with a haughty look actually forestalls him, opening the door herself. GWYMPLANE steps into the room. The QUEEN pretends to be speechless. The PRINCE is._]

[_stiffly_] Your Grace, the d.u.c.h.ess of Beaumont will please explain.

d.u.c.h.eSS

Oh, this mountebank was merely seeking the blind girl from his troupe, who had been admitted, or possibly abducted, into the palace.

QUEEN

Abducted, really? By whom? For whom?

d.u.c.h.eSS [_with a glance at CHARLES_]