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_ ACT II
SCENE I.--ALLADINE discovered, her forehead against one of the windows that open on the park. Enter ABLAMORE.
ABLAMORE.
Alladine....
ALLADINE
(_turning abruptly_).
What is it?
ABLAMORE.
Oh, how pale you are!... Are you ill?
ALLADINE.
No.
ABLAMORE.
What is it in the park?--Were you looking at the avenue of fountains that unfolds before your windows?--They are wonderful and weariless. They were raised there one by one, at the death of each of my daughters.... At night I hear them singing in the garden.... They bring to mind the lives they represent, and I can tell their voices apart....
ALLADINE.
I know.
ABLAMORE.
You must pardon me; I sometimes repeat the same things and my memory is less trust-worthy.... It is not age; I am not an old man yet, thank God! but kings have a thousand cares. Palomides has been telling me his adventures....
ALLADINE.
Ah!
ABLAMORE.
He has not done what he would; young people have no will any more.--He astonishes me. I had chosen him among a thousand for my daughter. He should have had a soul as deep as hers.--He has done nothing which may not be excusable, but I had hoped more.... What do you say of him?
ALLADINE.
Who?
ABLAMORE.
Palomides?
ALLADINE.
I have only seen him one evening....
ABLAMORE.
He astonishes me.--Everything has succeeded with him till now. He would undertake a thing and accomplish it without a word.--He would get out of danger without an effort, while others could not open a door without finding death behind it.--He was of those whom events seem to await on their knees. But a little while ago something snapped. You would say he has no longer the same star, and every step he takes carries him further from himself.--I don't know what it is.--He does not seem to be at all aware, but others can remark it.... Let us speak of something else: look! the night comes; I see it rise along the walls. Would you like to go together to the wood of Astolat, as we do other evenings?
ALLADINE.
I am not going out to-night.
ABLAMORE.
We will stay here, since you prefer it so. Yet the air is sweet and the evening very fair. [ALLADINE _starts without his noticing it._] I have had flowers set along the hedges, and I should like to show them to you....
ALLADINE.
No, not to-night.... If you wish me to.... I like to go there with you ... the air is pure and the trees ... but not to-night.... [_Cowers, weeping, against the old man's breast._] I do not feel quite well....
ABLAMORE.
What is the matter? You are going to fall.... I will call....
ALLADINE.
No, no.... It is nothing.... It is over....
ABLAMORE.
Sit down. Wait....
[He runs to the folding-doors at the back and opens both. Palomides is seen, seated on a bench. He has not had time to turn away his eyes. Ablamore looks fixedly at him, without a word, then re-enters the room. Palomides rises and retreats in the corridor, stifling the sound of his footsteps. The pet lamb leaves the room, unperceived.]
SCENE II.--A drawbridge over the moats of the palace. PALOMIDES and ALLADINE, with her pet lamb, appear at the two ends of the bridge. KING ABLAMORE leans out from a window of the tower.
PALOMIDES.
Were you going out, Alladine?--I was coming in. I am coming back from the chase.--It rained.
ALLADINE.
I have never passed this bridge.
PALOMIDES.
It leads to the forest. It is seldom passed. People had rather go a long way around. I think they are afraid because the moats are deeper at this place than elsewhere, and the black water that comes down from the mountains boils horribly between the walls before it goes hurling itself into the sea. It roars there always; but the quays are so high you hardly notice it. It is the most deserted wing of the palace. But on this side the forest is more beautiful, more ancient, and greater than any you have seen. It is full of unusual trees and flowers that have sprung up of themselves,--Will you come?
ALLADINE.
I do not know.... I am afraid of the roaring water.
PALOMIDES.
Come, come; it roars without reason. Look at your lamb; he looks at me as if he wished to come.... Come, come....
ALLADINE.
Don't call him.... He will get away.
PALOMIDES.
Come, come.
[The lamb escapes from Alladine's hands, and comes leaping toward Palomides, but slips on the inclined plane of the drawbridge and goes rolling into the moat.]
ALLADINE.
What has he done?--Where is he?
PALOMIDES.
He slipped. He is straggling in the heart of the eddy. Do not look at him; there is nothing to be done....
ALLADINE.
You are going to save him?
PALOMIDES.
Save him? But look! he is already in the tunnel. One moment more, and he will be under the vaults; and God himself will never see him more....
ALLADINE.
Go away! Go away!
PALOMIDES.
What is the matter?
ALLADINE.
Go away!--I do not want to see you any more!...
[Ablamore enters precipitately, seizes Alladine, and draws her away brusquely without speaking.]
SCENE III.--A room in the palace. ABLAMORE and ALLADINE discovered.
ABLAMORE.
You see, Alladine, my hands do not tremble, my heart beats like a sleeping child's, and my voice has not once been stirred with wrath. I bear no ill-will to Palomides, although what he has done might seem unpardonable. And as for thee, who could bear thee ill-will? You obey laws you do not know, and you could not act otherwise, I will not speak to you of what took place the other day along the palace moats, nor of all the unforeseen death of the lamb might have revealed to me, had I believed in omens for an instant. But last night I surprised the kiss you gave each other under the windows of Astolaine. At that moment I was with her in her room. She has a soul that fears so much to trouble, with a tear or with a simple movement of her eyelids, the happiness of those about her, that I shall never know if she, as I, surprised that wretched kiss. But I know what she has the power to suffer. I shall not ask you anything you cannot avow to me, but I would know if you had any secret design in following Palomides under the window where you must have seen us. Answer me without fear; you know beforehand I will pardon everything.
ALLADINE.
I did not kiss him.
ABLAMORE.
What? You did not kiss Palomides, and Palomides did not kiss you?
ALLADINE.
No.
ABLAMORE.
Ah!... Listen: I came here to forgive you everything.... I thought you had acted as we almost all act, without aught of our soul intervening.... But now I will know all that passed.... You love Palomides, and you have kissed him under my eyes....
ALLADINE.
No.
ABLAMORE.
Don't go away. I am only an old man. Do not flee....
ALLADINE.
I am not fleeing.
ABLAMORE.
Ah! ah! You do not flee, because you think my old hands harmless! They have yet the strength to tear a secret out in spite of all [_He seizes her arms_.] And they could wrestle with all those you prefer.... [_He twists her arms behind her head_.] Ah! you will not speak!... There will yet come a time when all your soul shall spirt out like a clear spring, for woe....
ALLADINE.
No, no!
ABLAMORE.
Again,... we are not at the end, the journey is very long--and naked truth is hid among the rocks.... Will she come forth?... I see her gestures in your eyes already, and her cool breath will lave my visage soon.... Ah!... Alladine! Alladine!...[_He releases her suddenly_.] I heard your bones cry out like little children.... I have not hurt you?... Do not stay thus, upon your knees before me,... It is I who go down on my knees. [_He does as he says_] I am a wretch.... You must have pity.... It is not for myself alone I pray.... I have only one poor daughter.... All the rest are dead.... I had seven of them about me.... They were fair and full of happiness; and I saw them no more.... The only one left to me is going to die, too.... She did not love life.... But one day she encountered something she no longer looked for, and I saw she had lost the desire to die.... I do not ask a thing impossible.... [ALLADINE weeps and makes no answer.]
SCENE IV.--The apartment of ASTOLAINE. ASTOLAINE and PALOMIDES discovered.
PALOMIDES.
Astolaine, when I met you several months ago by chance, it seemed to me that I had found at last what I had sought for during many years.... Till you, I did not know all that the ever tenderer goodness and complete simplicity of a high soul might be. I was so deeply stirred by it that it seemed to me the first time I had met a human being. You would have said that I had lived till then in a closed chamber which you opened for me; and all at once I knew what must be the soul of other men and what mine might become.... Since then, I have known you further. I have seen you act, and others too have taught me all that you have been.
There have been evenings when I quitted you without a word, and went to weep for wonder in a corner of the palace, because you had simply raised your eyes, made a little unconscious gesture, or smiled for no apparent cause, yet at the moment when all the souls about you asked it and would be satisfied. There is but you who know these moments, because you are, it seems, the soul of all, and I do not believe those who have not drawn near you can know what true life is. To-day I come to say all this to you, because I feel that I shall never be he whom I hoped once to become.... A chance has come--or haply I myself have come; for you can never tell if you have made a movement of yourself, or if it be chance that has met with you--a chance has come, which has opened my eyes, just as we were about to make each other unhappy; and I have recognized there must be something more incomprehensible than the beauty of the most beautiful soul or the most beautiful face; and mightier, too, since I must needs obey it.... I do not know if you have understood me. If you understand, have pity on me.... I have said to myself all that could be said.... I know what I shall lose, for I know her soul is a child's soul, a poor strengthless child's, beside yours, and yet I cannot resist it....
ASTOLAINE.
Do not weep.... I know too that one does not do what one would do ... nor was I ignorant that you would come.... There must indeed be laws mightier than those of our souls, of which we always speak.... [_Kissing him abruptly_].--But I love thee the more, my poor Palomides.
PALOMIDES.
I love thee, too ... more than her I love.... Thou weepest, as I do?
ASTOLAINE.
They are little tears.... Do not be sad for them.... I weep so, because I am woman, but they say our tears are not painful.... You see I can dry them already.... I knew well what it was.... I waited for the wakening.... It has come, and I can breathe with less disquietude, being no longer happy.... There!... We must see clearly now for you and her. For I believe my father already has suspicions.
[Exeunt.] _
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