“Yes, they have granted his freedom—from life. In a word, they will shorten it, they will drag him from the midst of you. Is that a misfortune or a benefit, an injury or a favor? This is what I cannot decide. But as for me, I remain here!”
“Margaret,” cried Roper, “what is wrong with you?” And he gazed at her, astonished at the cutting
irony and the bitter despair expressed in the tone of her voice and imprinted on her features. “I no longer recognize you.”
“Yes, I am changed, Roper. Henceforth you shall be my only model. Who is that young woman dressed in gauze, crowned with flowers, whom the light and rapid dance carries far from the banquet and the cups filled with fragrant cordials—who casts far away from her the memory of her father, and has forgotten the grave of her mother? That is the wife of William, Margaret Roper. No, I do not want that name. Go, keep it; give it to some one who resembles yourself, to whom you may bear presents, and who, on hearing you say it, will believe that one can be happy—yes, will believe that it is possible to be happy!”
“Margaret,” said Roper, more and more surprised, “I cannot comprehend what you would say.”
“Nor do I any more,” replied the young girl, wiping her forehead; for she was warm. “But do you understand at least, Roper, that the city is awake, that they are preparing the scaffold down below, that the soldiers are astir within, that I hear the clanking of their arms, that we are very soon going to see my father pass? Tell me, Roper, how do you contrive to become so unfeeling, to love nothing, to regret nothing? Have you a secret for this? Give it to me—give me that which makes one neither feel nor speak; that one can sleep beside the axe and the prison, when within the prison lies a father whom they are about to immolate!”
And she fixed her piercing eyes on him.
“Ah! Margaret. Yes, I have slept, I have done wrong; but fatigue overcame me. It seemed to me I
saw him; I dreamed that I had rescued him.”
“Yes, your dreams are always happy; but look, Roper, here is the reality.”