Cleo (averting her face). I perceive the importance of the obstacle. I admit ... that to love a man who is the father of another woman’s child—
Dr. Thorne (interrupting). And who loves the mother of his child—
(Cleo sobs.)
Dr. Thorne. Come, Laddie. (He does not glance at the woman again.)
[Exeunt Dr. Thorne and Laddie.
Cleo (yearning after him; stretches out her arms, but does not follow; calls mournfully). Oh, if you would come back a minute—only a minute!... In heaven, or earth, or hell, I’d never ask anything of you again. A minute, a minute!
(Dr. Thorne does not return, and does not reply. Cleo is left alone in the dead world. She falls flat upon the slag and ashes.)
End of Scene II.
SCENE III.
Picturesquely visible among the trees of a grove appears a small, rustic cottage, curiously interwoven of bark, vines, boughs, leaves, and flowers—a building which seems to have grown from the conditions and the colors of the grove. The sea and the sails show beyond, through the trees. In the distant perspective can be seen the city on the hill; in the intervale, the foliage, flowers, fields, as before.