[Zoraya, Enrique]
ZORAYA. (To Enrique) Your heart beats!--You have been running?
ENRIQUE. Yes!
ZORAYA. They have pursued you?
ENRIQUE. (Removing his mantle) No!
ZORAYA. And on the road, did you see no one?
ENRIQUE. Not one person! (He places on the stool his mantle, his hat
and his sword.) I did not come by way of the bridge, but by the path
up the hillside after crossing the river in a boat.
ZORAYA. (Seated on the cushions) In daylight! What imprudence! And
instead of coming last night when I waited so anxiously for you!
ENRIQUE. I, too, have had occasion to think of that!--When I left you
at dawn the day before yesterday I saw standing at the end of the
bridge a man whom I knew had no ordinary reason for being there at
that hour. I passed him quickly, covering myself closely with my
cloak. He followed me, but I reached my residence after throwing him
off my trail in an alley.
ZORAYA. He followed you?--You are certain?
ENRIQUE. Absolutely certain. It was to baffle him that I forced myself
to remain away from you last night and the night before and that I
crossed the river in a boat, below the Mirador.
ZORAYA. Yes! (Rising) Oh! it is clear now! It is well for you that
they watched only at night.
ENRIQUE. And why?
ZORAYA. The men watched there behind those fig trees. (He goes toward
the terrace.) No!--they have gone away, thinking it useless to watch
for you in the daytime.
ENRIQUE. How many?
ZORAYA. Three. One of them seemed to be the chief.
ENRIQUE. Did he have a small, grizzly beard?
ZORAYA. Yes.
ENRIQUE. (Eagerly) It was he who spied upon me. I believe I recognize
him! (Seats himself at right on the fountain basin.) It is Cardenos,
one of my father's old soldiers, but now an agent of the Holy Office
and a religious bigot!
ZORAYA. (At his right, standing) Then! he has recognized you!
ENRIQUE. I doubt it. He would hardly wait one day. He knows only that
you are receiving some unknown person in the night. If I were
suspected they would prowl round my house and I have seen nothing of
them--At least, whatever there is in this, we must be on guard.
ZORAYA. Oh, yes!
ENRIQUE. And for the sake of prudence give up seeing each other.
ZORAYA. For several days--surely.
ENRIQUE. Say--some weeks.
ZORAYA. (Protesting) Several weeks?
ENRIQUE. It is the only way to stop them from spying upon us.
ZORAYA. Several weeks!--without seeing each other?
ENRIQUE. My Zoraya, you must resign yourself to it.
ZORAYA. Resign myself!--Oh, resignation is easy for you! Our love is
not the only affair of your life!--But I!--I cannot conquer my
loneliness after you depart with the thought that you will return
when the first star flowers in the heavens. I shall no more, during
the great heat of the day, dream of the night's divine joys, which
live again in thoughts of you. I shall feel lonely enough in this
house during the coolness of evening when alone I shall hear the soft
wind in the branches, the songs of my birds, the purling of my
streams--then all that charms me at other times will bring in your
absence only sorrow and tears!--Those two nights without you, how
long they seemed!--and you speak of weeks!--several weeks, you say.
"Where is he? What is he doing? Does he think of me? If he should
never return!" (Enrique makes a quick movement.) Ah! perhaps that is
what you wish to say and dare not tell me!