Clair de Lune Part 28

I want the blessing of your arms to be the last thing in my life.

[_Suddenly a look of recognition and joy floods her face, and her eyes seem to follow some divine approach. She murmurs_]:

How beautiful! How right!

[_And fluttering in GWYMPLANE'S arms she is dead. He lays her gently back, lifts one of her hands, kisses it, looks at her as if the last agony had been drawn out of his soul, then pa.s.ses his hand across his brow, tries to speak, and after a long pause:_]

GWYMPLANE

It appears we have made good our escape.

URSUS [_raising his head from his arms_]

The tide is with us.

GWYMPLANE

We are bound--where?

URSUS

Westward.

GWYMPLANE [_with tenderness_]

Dear Ursus, you were leaving your country and going to face old age among customs, languages, peoples, strange to you, and to save us from the talons of a pack of cards.

URSUS

You and I are going now, Gwymplane.

GWYMPLANE

I think I have no more knack for wearing costumes and masks, and I could not ask human beings to accept me as I am, either inside or out.

Any reality is like a row of knives and each minute drags me backward and forward across them.

[_He seems to commune upon and decide something within himself.

His voice breaks clearly over a long pause._]

Good-night, Ursus, I am going up into the prow to seek some fresher air.

[_URSUS sits with his head on his arms, which are resting on DEA'S coverlet. There is a faint shrill of sighing wind, with the voices of the sailors rising beneath it, and the ascending sun commences to throw red bars across the water._

_Suddenly the singing voices cease abruptly and a sailor hurries in._]

SAILOR

Sir, sir, a man has fallen into the sea!

URSUS

[_Starting out of his lethargy and speaking in a strange, numb voice._]

Then put the s.h.i.+p about. We return.

SAILOR

Shall we not lower boats and make search for this man--[_he shudders and crosses himself_] for this man who has fallen into the sea?

URSUS [_half to himself_]

Let a man rest where he has gone by his own will.

_CURTAIN_

SCENE 3

[_An antechamber communicating with the QUEEN'S bedroom._]

1ST COURTIER

The air is very heavy this morning.

2D COURTIER

It is as if the clouds had dropped down out of the sky, entered into this palace, and turned into leaden wheels, running over one, no matter where one hides.

3D COURTIER

You are lucky to be able to talk. I am too depressed even to breathe.

1ST COURTIER

I am terribly depressed,--but I am still curious. What do you suppose it is all about?

2D COURTIER

It is all about pa.s.sions. There have been several conflicting kinds rus.h.i.+ng through the atmosphere lately. Naturally the sea is a bit choppy for our painted sort of barks.

[_He nods about him rather contemptuously._]

3D COURTIER

You can at least talk no matter what happens.

1ST COURTIER