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.