Queen
[Looking whimsically from one to another.]
Ah, let us suppose for a moment, Josephine, that this were true. Surely you would be happy in a marriage so fortified by natural selection, and, as for Charles—the loss of certain things might be replaced by others.
[She gazes at him tenderly.]
Duchess
[In a sudden outburst of confusion and ennui.]
We are all gone mad. I feel as if we were in a web. I marry with a clown—the clown a lord—the lord a deformity. [She shudders]
Gwymplane
O, I cannot stand this hellish whirl another instant. It is biting my ankles off and blinding my eyes in a red sting of madness.
[He attempts to throw open the door. Phedro swiftly forestalls him with widespread arms and a grim expression; Gwymplane turns away bowed from his ferocity of pain and bewilderment, while Phedro, with an incredible, greased swiftness, lets himself out the door, and returns almost upon the instant with Dea terrified, supported on his arm.]