Her. Nay, I'll not listen.
Cha. Star that was a maiden,
Do not believe I loved you when my days
Ran tribute at your feet,——
Her. Say anything
But that. Those days were mine, and true.
Cha. False, false!
For love is generous as the heart of bounty,
Giving defect perfection. Narrowed hours,
Beseamed and flawed, take from its seer-lit eyes
The unstinted, dear proportion secret yet
In Time's full dream.
Her. 'Twas I who failed——
Cha. Not you!
That midnight moment held the dawn of this,
All this that now you are, and love had seen
The folded glory of yourself had love
Been there to see. But I cast dust upon
Your sleeping wings, and did not know your heart
Till wounds had laid it bare.
Her. How could you know
More than its native bosom where it dwelt
Strange and unguessed?
Cha. If I had loved,
Such soul of fragrance had not hid from me
This unbound blossoming.
Her. We must forget
Love's morning miracles forever missed.
His fair, warm day is left us,—sunset's gold,
And evening with the stars. That is enough
For me and you——
Cha. My pledge! I'm here to meet
Famette!