PIPER
With me you may not go! But you'll be safe.
Hearken:—you, Michael, go to Rudersheim;
And tell the nuns—
BARBARA
No, no! I dare not have it!
Oh, they would send and take me! No, no, no!
PIPER
Would you go back to Hamelin?
BARBARA No—no—no! Ah, I am spent. [Droops towards the PIPER; falters and sinks down on the bank beside the well, in a swoon.—The PIPER is abashed and rueful for the moment.
MICHAEL
All this, your work!
PIPER
[looking at her closely]
Not mine.
This is no charm. It is all youth and grief,
And weariness. And she shall follow you.—
Tell the good nuns you found her sore bewitched,
Here in this haunt of 'devils';—clean distraught.
No Church could so receive a dancing nun!
Tell them thou art an honest, piteous man
Desires to marry her.
MICHAEL
Marry the Moon!
PIPER
No, no, the Moon for me!—She shall be yours;
And here she sleeps, until her wits be sound.
[He spreads his cloak over her, gently]
The sun's still high. 'T is barely afternoon.—
[Looks at the sunshine. A thought strikes him with sudden dismay]
'T is—no, the time is going!—On my life,
I had forgot Them!—And They will not stay
After the Rainbow fades.
MICHAEL [confounded] Art thou moon-mad?
PIPER
[madly]
No. Stir not! Keep her safe! I come anon.
But first I go.—They'll not mind Cheat-the-Devil!
They'll creep, to find out where the Rainbow went.
I know them! So would I!—They'll all leak out!