Gretchen (relenting). No, Rip,—I——
Rip. No; you have driven me from your house. You have opened the door for me to go. You may nefer open it for me to come back. I wipe the disgrace from your door. Good-by, Gretchen, good-by!
[Rip exits into the storm.
PART III
SERIOUS HITS
IF WE HAD THE TIME
BY RICHARD BURTON
If I had the time to find a place
And sit me down full face to face
With my better self, that can not show
In my daily life that rushes so:
It might be then I would see my soul
Was stumbling toward the shining goal,
I might be nerved by the thought sublime,—
If I had the time!
If I had the time to let my heart
Speak out and take in my life apart,
To look about and to stretch a hand
To a comrade quartered in no-luck land;
Ah, God! If I might but just sit still
And hear the note of the whippoorwill,
I think that my wish with God's would rhyme,—
If I had the time!