One-Act Plays by Modern Authors

by Unknown

Mary [after a pause].
The foolishest of women:
A heart that should have been adventurer
On the high seas; a seeker in new lands,
To dare all and to lose. But I was made
A woman.
Oh, you see!—could you see all.
What if I say ... the truth is not so far,

[Watching him.]

Yet farther than you dream. If I confess ...
He charmed my fancy ... for the moment,—ay
The shine of his fortunes too, the very name
Of Pembroke?... Dear my judge,—ay, clouded brow
And darkened fortune, be not black to me!
I'd try for my escape; the window's wide,
No one forbids, and yet I stay—I stay.

.......

Oh, I was niggard, once, unkind—I know,
Untrusty: loved, unloved you, day by day:
A little and a little,—why, I knew not,
And more, and wondered why;—then not at all:
Drank up the dew from out your very heart,
Like the extortionate sun, to leave you parched
Till, with as little grace, I flung all back
In gusts of angry rain! I have been cruel.
But the spell works; yea, love, the spell, the spell
Fed by your fasting, by your subtlety
Past all men's knowledge.... There is something rare
About you that I long to flee and cannot:—
Some mastery ... that's more my will than I.

[She laughs softly. He listens, looking straight ahead, not at her, immobile, but suffering evidently. She watches his face and speaks with greater intensity. Here she crosses nearer and falls on her knees.]

Ah, look: you shall believe, you shall believe.
Will you put by your Music? Was I that?
Your Music,—very Music?... Listen, then,
Turn not so blank a face. Thou hast my love.
I'll tell thee so till thought itself shall tire
And fall a-dreaming like a weary child, ...
Only to dream of you, and in its sleep
To murmur You.... Ah, look at me, love, lord ...
Whom queens would honor. Read these eyes you praised,
That pitied, once,—that sue for pity now.
But look! You shall not turn from me—

The Player. Eyes, eyes!—
The darkness hides so much.

Mary. He'll not believe....
What can I do? What more,—what more, you ... man?
I bruise my heart here, at an iron gate....

[She regards him half gloomily without rising.]