Thomas Bailey Aldrich

ACT I, SCENE I

Characters: Count of Lara, a poor nobleman; Beatrice, his wife Miriam, a maid, who personates a page.

Scene: Count of Lara's villa. A balcony overlooking the garden.

Lara.

The third moon of our marriage, Beatrice!

It hangs in the still twilight, large and full,

Like a ripe orange.

Beatrice.

Like an orange? yes,

But not so red, Count. Then it has no stem.