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The Little Dream, a play by John Galsworthy |
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Scene 1 |
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_ SCENE I [It is just after sunset of an August evening. The scene is a room in a mountain hut, furnished only with a table, benches. and a low broad window seat. Through this window three rocky peaks are seen by the light of a moon which is slowly whitening the last hues of sunset. An oil lamp is burning. SEELCHEN, a mountain girl, eighteen years old, is humming a folk-song, and putting away in a cupboard freshly washed soup-bowls and glasses. She is dressed in a tight-fitting black velvet bodice. square-cut at the neck and partly filled in with a gay handkerchief, coloured rose-pink, blue, and golden, like the alpen-rose, the gentian, and the mountain dandelion; alabaster beads, pale as edelweiss, are round her throat; her stiffened. white linen sleeves finish at the elbow; and her full well-worn skirt is of gentian blue. The two thick plaits of her hair are crossed, and turned round her head. As she puts away the last bowl, there is a knock; and LAMOND opens the outer door. He is young, tanned, and good-looking, dressed like a climber, and carries a plaid, a ruck-sack, and an ice-axe.] LAMOND. Good evening! SEELCHEN. Good evening, gentle Sir! LAMOND. My name is Lamond. I'm very late I fear. SEELCHEN. Do you wish to sleep here? LAMOND. Please. SEELCHEN. All the beds are full--it is a pity. I will call Mother. LAMOND. I've come to go up the Great Horn at sunrise. SEELCHEN. [Awed] The Great Horn! But he is impossible. LAMOND. I am going to try that. SEELCHEN. There is the Wine Horn, and the Cow Horn. LAMOND. I have climbed them. SEELCHEN. But he is so dangerous--it is perhaps--death. LAMOND. Oh! that's all right! One must take one's chance. SEELCHEN. And father has hurt his foot. For guide, there is only Mans Felsman. LAMOND. The celebrated Felsman? SEELCHEN. [Nodding; then looking at him with admiration] Are you that Herr Lamond who has climbed all our little mountains this year? LAMOND. All but that big fellow. SEELCHEN. We have heard of you. Will you not wait a day for father's foot? LAMOND. Ah! no. I must go back home to-morrow. SEELCHEN. The gracious Sir is in a hurry. LAMOND. [Looking at her intently] Alas! SEELCHEN. Are you from London? Is it very big? LAMOND. Six million souls. SEELCHEN. Oh! [After a little pause] I have seen Cortina twice. LAMOND. Do you live here all the year? SEELCHEN. In winter in the valley. LAMOND. And don't you want to see the world? SEELCHEN. Sometimes. [Going to a door, she calls softly] Hans! [Then pointing to another door] There are seven German gentlemen asleep in there! LAMOND. Oh God! SEELCHEN. Please? They are here to see the sunrise. [She picks up a little book that has dropped from LAMOND'S pocket] I have read several books. LAMOND. This is by the great English poet. Do you never make poetry here, and dream dreams, among your mountains? SEELCHEN. [Slowly shaking her head] See! It is the full moon. [While they stand at the window looking at the moon, there enters a lean, well-built, taciturn young man dressed in Loden.] SEELCHEN. Hans! FELSMAN. [In a deep voice] The gentleman wishes me? SEELCHEN. [Awed] The Great Horn for to-morrow! [Whispering to him] It is the celebrated London one. FELSMAN. The Great Horn is not possible. LAMOND. You say that? And you're the famous Felsman? FELSMAN. [Grimly] We start at dawn. SEELCHEN. It is the first time for years! LAMOND. [Placing his plaid and rucksack on the window bench] Can I sleep here? SEELCHEN. I will see; perhaps-- [She runs out up some stairs] FELSMAN. [Taking blankets from the cupboard and spreading them on the window seat] So! [As he goes out into the air. SEELCHEN comes slipping in again with a lighted candle.] SEELCHEN. There is still one bed. This is too hard for you. LAMOND. Oh! thanks; but that's all right. SEELCHEN. To please me! LAMOND. May I ask your name? SEELCHEN. Seelchen. LAMOND. Little soul, that means--doesn't it? To please you I would sleep with seven German gentlemen. SEELCHEN. Oh! no; it is not necessary. LAMOND. [With a grave bow] At your service, then. [He prepares to go] SEELCHEN. Is it very nice in towns, in the World, where you come from? LAMOND. When I'm there I would be here; but when I'm here I would be there. SEELCHEN. [Clasping her hands] That is like me but I am always here. LAMOND. Ah! yes; there is no one like you in towns. SEELCHEN. In two places one cannot be. [Suddenly] In the towns there are theatres, and there is beautiful fine work, and--dancing, and--churches--and trains--and all the things in books--and-- LAMOND. Misery. SEELCHEN. But there is life. LAMOND. And there is death. SEELCHEN. To-morrow, when you have climbed--will you not come back? LAMOND. No. SEELCHEN. You have all the world; and I have nothing. LAMOND. Except Felsman, and the mountains. SEELCHEN. It is not good to eat only bread. LAMOND. [Looking at her hard] I would like to eat you! SEELCHEN. But I am not nice; I am full of big wants--like the cheese with holes. LAMOND. I shall come again. SEELCHEN. There will be no more hard mountains left to climb. And if it is not exciting, you do not care. LAMOND. O wise little soul! SEELCHEN. No. I am not wise. In here it is always aching. LAMOND. For the moon? SEELCHEN. Yes. [Then suddenly] From the big world you will remember? LAMOND. [Taking her hand] There is nothing in the big world so sweet as this. SEELCHEN. [Wisely] But there is the big world itself. LAMOND. May I kiss you, for good-night? [She puts her face forward; and he kisses her cheek, and, suddenly, her lips. Then as she draws away.] LAMOND. I am sorry, little soul. SEELCHEN. That's all right! LAMOND. [Taking the candle] Dream well! Goodnight! SEELCHEN. [Softly] Good-night! FELSMAN. [Coming in from the air, and eyeing them] It is cold--it will be fine. [LAMOND still looking back goes up the stairs; and FELSMAN waits for him to pass.] SEELCHEN. [From the window seat] It was hard for him here. I thought. [He goes up to her, stays a moment looking down then bends and kisses her hungrily.] SEELCHEN. Art thou angry? [He does not answer, but turning out the lamp, goes into an inner room.] [SEELCHEN sits gazing through the window at the peaks bathed in full moonlight. Then, drawing the blankets about her, she snuggles doom on the window seat.] SEELCHEN. [In a sleepy voice] They kissed me--both. [She sleeps] [The scene falls quite dark] _ |
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