_The hall up-stairs, or other room in Palace. TRISTRAM and FLORA
meeting._
_TRISTRAM._
Ha, Flora! where’s Sir Gregory? What red eyes:
blubbering!
_FLORA._
I am discharged, Tristram, discharged. The Countess
has discharged me for keeping company with you. And
she has been crying too, to have to part with me.
What ever will come to us?
_T._ What matters? I’ll cheer thee, girl. Look here!
More money. There’s five pieces of gold: and all for
carrying this letter to Sir Gregory. Where is he?
_Fl._ Who gave it you?
_T._ That Mr. Ricardo. It’s a mystery, Flora: but
there’s something in it, I do believe.
_Fl._ Mr. Ricardo?
_T._ Ay. Who should he be that scatters gold, and
seals with a crown, look! and says that he will find us
new places, and all sorts of fine promises? A man
that would flick me away whenever I came near him.
_Fl._ Did he, Tristram? 2830
_T._ Ay, that he would. But I heard him say once
that he came here for his cure. I take it he’s cured now;
and he would make friends all on a sudden, and
begs me kindly carry this to Sir Gregory. ’Tis his
farewell, no doubt. He will go home, and take me
with him.
_Fl._ And me too?
_T._ Not if you blubber. Where’s Sir Gregory?
_Fl._ I don’t know. The Countess has bid me go
seek Lady Laura. 2840
_T._ Come! I’ll with you as far as the library,
where I think I should find the old gentleman.
[_Exeunt._
_Enter Diana._
_DIANA._
Rejected! by the man I loved rejected:
Despised by him, and by myself betrayed!
And all will know it—I could not hide it.
Our nature hath this need: woman must love.
But oh! to have made my idol of a stone,
To my wórship a déaf unanswering stone!
At last I am cured. Since not my rank suffices
To set me above the rules I gave my maids, 2850
I’ll never love. Am I to stand and wait,
Till some man fancy me, and then to melt
And conjure inclination at a nod?
O man, thou art our god: the almighty’s curse
Crowns thee our master: from the green-sick girl
That mopes in worship of the nearest fool,
To the poor jaded wife of thirty years
Who dotes upon her striker, ’tis the same....
That’s not for me. Nay, give it up altogether:
Go free. If man’s so base; if that high passion,
That spirit-ecstasy, that supersensual, 2861
Conscious devotion of divinity
Of which I dreamed, is only to be found
In books of fanciful philosophy,
Or tales of pretty poets ... why then away
With books and men! my life henceforth shall prove
Woman is self-sufficing: in my court
No man shall step, save such as may be needed
To show my spirit holds them in contempt.
Women shall be my friends and women only; 2870
And I shall find allies. I had in Laura
All that I could desire, a friend, unselfish,
Devoted, grateful, and as yet untainted
By any folly of love: and her I schemed
To marry away. ’Tis not too late: I’ll save her:
She shall not be enslaved: she doth not love.
Her heart is free and generous; it has shrunk
By instinct from the yoke: she will join with me;
And if I tell her all,—or if she have guessed,—
Now when I tell her she will comfort me. 2880
Comfort and counsel, friendship, that I need
And she can give. I never will part fróm her.
_Re-enter Flora._
_Fl._ Oh, my lady: the Lady Laura is gone, she has run away.
_D._ Run away!
_Fl._ Sir Gregory is coming to tell you all about it.
She has run away with Mr. Frederick.
_D._ Nonsense! How dare you tell me....
_Fl._ I guess it’s true though. I remember now I used
to say how strange it was that such a sweet lady, and
so clever and proper a gentleman as.... 2891
_D._ Silence, Flora! What has come to you? What
makes you say this?
_Fl._ Because she’s not to be found. But Sir Gregory
will tell you.
_D._ Send Sir Gregory at once. (_Aside._) This is impossible,
impossible.
_Fl._ See here he comes.
_D._ (_aside_). Ah! if this were Frederick’s secret!
_Enter Sir Gregory._