Scene III.
Norton, Mellefont.
MELLEFONT.
You disturb me, Norton!
NORTON.
I beg your pardon, Sir (withdrawing again).
MELLEFONT.
No, no! Stay! It is just as well that you should disturb me. What do you want?
NORTON.
I have heard some very good news from Betty, and have come to wish you happiness.
MELLEFONT.
On the reconciliation with her father, I suppose you mean? I thank you.
NORTON.
So Heaven still means to make you happy.
MELLEFONT.
If it means to do so,--you see, Norton, I am just towards myself--it certainly does not mean it for my sake.
NORTON.
No, no; if you feel that, then it will be for your sake also.
MELLEFONT.
For my Sara's sake alone. If its vengeance, already armed, could spare the whole of a sinful city for the sake of a few just men, surely it can also bear with a sinner, when a soul in which it finds delight, is the sharer of his fate.
NORTON.
You speak with earnestness and feeling. But does not joy express itself differently from this?
MELLEFONT.
Joy, Norton? (Looking sharply at him.) For me it is gone now for ever.
NORTON.
May I speak candidly?
MELLEFONT.
You may.
NORTON.
The reproach which I had to hear this morning of having made myself a participator in your crimes, because I had been silent about them, may excuse me, if I am less silent henceforth.
MELLEFONT.
Only do not forget who you are!
NORTON.
I will not forget that I am a servant, and a servant, alas, who might be something better, if he had lived for it. I am your servant, it is true, but not so far as to wish to be damned along with you.
MELLEFONT.
With me? And why do you say that now?
NORTON.
Because I am not a little astonished to find you different from what I expected.
MELLEFONT.
Will you not inform me what you expected?
NORTON.
To find you all delight.
MELLEFONT.
It is only the common herd who are beside themselves immediately when luck smiles on them for once.
NORTON.
Perhaps, because the common herd still have the feelings which among greater people are corrupted and weakened by a thousand unnatural notions. But there is something besides moderation to be read in your face--coldness, irresolution, disinclination.
MELLEFONT.
And if so? Have you forgotten who is here besides Sara? The presence of Marwood----
NORTON.
Could make you anxious, I daresay, but not despondent. Something else troubles you. And I shall be glad to be mistaken in thinking you would rather that the father were not yet reconciled. The prospect of a position which so little suits your way of thinking----
MELLEFONT.
Norton, Norton! Either you must have been, or still must be, a dreadful villain, that you can thus guess my thoughts. Since you have hit the nail upon the head, I will not deny it. It is true--so certain as it is that I shall love my Sara for ever so little does it please me, that I must--must love her for ever! But do not fear; I shall conquer this foolish fancy. Or do you think that it is no fancy? Who bids me look at marriage as compulsion? I certainly do not wish to be freer than she will permit me to be.
NORTON.
These reflections are all very well. But Marwood will come to the aid of your old prejudices, and I fear, I fear----
MELLEFONT.
That which will never happen! You shall see her go back this very evening to London. And as I have confessed my most secret--folly we will call it for the present--I must not conceal from you either, that I have put Marwood into such a fright that she will obey the slightest hint from me.
NORTON.
That sounds incredible to me.
MELLEFONT.
Look! I snatched this murderous steel from her hand (showing the dagger which he had taken from Marwood) when in a fearful rage she was on the point of stabbing me to the heart with it. Will you believe now, that I offered her a stout resistance? At first she well nigh succeeded in throwing her noose around my neck again. The traitoress!--She has Arabella with her.
NORTON.
Arabella?
MELLEFONT.
I have not yet been able to fathom by what cunning she got the child back into her hands again. Enough, the result did not fall out as she no doubt had expected.
NORTON.
Allow me to rejoice at your firmness, and to consider your reformation half assured. Yet,--as you wish me to know all--what business had she here under the name of Lady Solmes?
MELLEFONT.
She wanted of all things to see her rival. I granted her wish partly from kindness, partly from rashness, partly from the desire to humiliate her by the sight of the best of her sex. You shake your head, Norton?
NORTON.
I should not have risked that.
MELLEFONT.
Risked? I did not risk anything more, after all, than what I should have had to risk if I had refused her. She would have tried to obtain admittance as Marwood; and the worst that can be expected from her incognito visit is not worse than that.
NORTON.
Thank Heaven that it went off so quietly.
MELLEFONT.
It is not quite over yet, Norton. A slight indisposition came over her and compelled her to go away without taking leave. She wants to come again. Let her do so! The wasp which has lost its sting (pointing to the dagger) can do nothing worse than buzz. But buzzing too shall cost her dear, if she grows too troublesome with it. Do I not hear somebody coming? Leave me if it should be she. It is she. Go! (Exit Norton.)
Scene IV.
Mellefont, Marwood.
MARWOOD.
No doubt you are little pleased to see me again.
MELLEFONT.
I am very pleased, Marwood, to see that your indisposition has had no further consequences. You are better, I hope?
MARWOOD.
So, so.
MELLEFONT.
You have not done well, then, to trouble to come here again.
MARWOOD.
I thank you, Mellefont, if you say this out of kindness to me; and I do not take it amiss, if you have another meaning in it.
MELLEFONT.
I am pleased to see you so calm.
MARWOOD.
The storm is over. Forget it, I beg you once more.
MELLEFONT.
Only remember your promise, Marwood, and I will forget everything with pleasure. But if I knew that you would not consider it an offence, I should like to ask----
MARWOOD.
Ask on, Mellefont! You cannot offend me any more. What were you going to ask?
MELLEFONT.
How you liked my Sara?
MARWOOD.
The question is natural. My answer will not seem so natural, but it is none the less true for that. I liked her very much.
MELLEFONT.
Such impartiality delights me. But would it be possible for him who knew how to appreciate the charms of a Marwood to make a bad choice?
MARWOOD.
You ought to have spared me this flattery, Mellefont, if it is flattery. It is not in accordance with our intention to forget each other.
MELLEFONT.
You surely do not wish me to facilitate this intention by rudeness? Do not let our separation be of an ordinary nature. Let us break with each other as people of reason who yield to necessity; without bitterness, without anger, and with the preservation of a certain degree of respect, as behoves our former intimacy.
MARWOOD.
Former intimacy! I do not wish to be reminded of it. No more of it. What must be, must, and it matters little how. But one word more about Arabella. You will not let me have her?
MELLEFONT.
No, Marwood!
MARWOOD.
It is cruel, since you can no longer be her father, to take her mother also from her.
MELLEFONT.
I can still be her father, and will be so.
MARWOOD.
Prove it, then, now!
MELLEFONT.
How?
MARWOOD.
Permit Arabella to have the riches which I have in keeping for you, as her father's inheritance. As to her mother's inheritance I wish I could leave her a better one than the shame of having been borne by me.
MELLEFONT.
Do not speak so! I shall provide for Arabella without embarrassing her mother's property. If she wishes to forget me, she must begin by forgetting that she possesses anything from me. I have obligations towards her, and I shall never forget that really--though against her will--she has promoted my happiness. Yes, Marwood, in all seriousness I thank you for betraying our retreat to a father whose ignorance of it alone prevented him from receiving us again.
MARWOOD.
Do not torture me with gratitude which I never wished to deserve. Sir William is too good an old fool; he must think differently from what I should have thought in his place. I should have forgiven my daughter, but as to her seducer I should have----
MELLEFONT.
Marwood!
MARWOOD.
True; you yourself are the seducer! I am silent. Shall I be presently allowed to pay my farewell visit to Miss Sampson?
MELLEFONT.
Sara could not be offended, even if you left without seeing her again.
MARWOOD.
Mellefont, I do not like playing my part by halves, and I have no wish to be taken, even under an assumed name, for a woman without breeding.
MELLEFONT.
If you care for your own peace of mind you ought to avoid seeing a person again who must awaken certain thoughts in you which----
MARWOOD (smiling disdainfully).
You have a better opinion of yourself than of me. But even if you believed that I should be inconsolable on your account, you ought at least to believe it in silence.--Miss Sampson would awaken certain thoughts in me? Certain thoughts! Oh yes; but none more certain than this--that the best girl can often love the most worthless man.
MELLEFONT.
Charming, Marwood, perfectly charming. Now you are as I have long wished to see you; although I could almost have wished, as I told you before, that we could have retained some respect for each other. But this may perhaps come still when once your fermenting heart has cooled down. Excuse me for a moment. I will fetch Miss Sampson to see you.