Stay here: and know, if the Queen is left again,
You shall be beaten with two rods at once.
She picks up the cup and goes out by the door beyond the bed.
GORMFLAITH turns the chair a little away from the bed so that she can watch the jar door, and, seating herself, draws a letter from her bosom.
Gormflaith (to herself, reading):
"Open your window when the moon is dead,
And I will come again.
The men say everywhere that you are faithless,
The women say your face is a false face
And your eyes shifty eyes. Ah, but I love you, Gormflaith.
Do not forget your window-latch to-night,
For when the moon is dead the house is still."
LEAR again parts the door-curtains at the back, and, seeing GORMFLAITH, enters. At the first slight rustle of the curtains GORMFLAITH stealthily slips the letter back into her bosom before turning gradually, a finger to her lips, to see who approaches her.
Lear (leaning over the side of her chair):
Lady, what do you read?
Gormflaith
I read a letter, Sire.