"James, are you beside yourself?"
"How can I be calm when I shall welcome my blessed lady? You say she is coming. Blessed be the day when her feet cross your—"
"That will do. I see you still love her better than me, who have tried to be your friend, when she forsook and forgot you. Such is the gratitude of this world."
"There is no test or sacrifice any man can pass through, I would not gladly and cheerfully endure to prove my loyalty to you. You tell me Clarissa is coming here, then condemn me for rejoicing, when there hasn't been a day passed for years I have not prayed for this very thing. How can I help rejoicing at your happiness? Why do you look so serious? I know—My God! They will bring her poor dead body here. Poor child, we will cover it with flowers. I will cut all those we were saving for the public exhibition. You will not care, will you Professor? It is the last favor a poor old servant can do. You know I always keep one plant of her favorite blossoms growing. There is only one spray of them, but she would like them in her hand. I always felt she would come, and I wanted her to find them in season, or out of season her flowers, a fit sign of the constancy of the love we felt for her."
"Stop! You are giving her more credit than I feel is her due. Your love for her is stronger than I had dreamed. It is well you have not told me before of your keeping a particular blossom among my plants for her, otherwise you would not have preserved the plants, and remained in my service. If your love for her is stronger than for me, I will release you from your allegiance to me, and you had better seek her service."
"Remember, I am an old man, no longer quick to understand. Let that fact be my excuse. No other master will I ever serve willingly. I know not how to talk or act. You say she is coming, yet you are angry when I feel joy. Why does she come, if not dead?"
"By her own wish."
"I always told you she loved you."
"She is not coming because she loves me. She has heard I am a powerful mesmerist, and wishes me to mesmerize her."
"No! No! You do not mean to say she is coming here unbidden and unwelcomed by you."