[Harlequin waves his wand. The tablecloth has gone. It is Clown indeed,
clownish and undoubted.
Yes, it's Clown, it's Clown, it's Clown! And Clown says:--"Whither away,
fair sir?" And the Man of the World just withers.
[He grinds his teeth, does the Man of the World (if there is anything
in the orchestra that will do it). And he goes, defeated. "Exit,
baffled, the Man of the World."
Alice is breathless.
Harlequin and Gelsomino are alone now, and Harlequin wraps Gelsomino, all
trembling as he is, in the cloak which the Man of the World dropped there.
They wait. Then comes poor Columbine creeping in, timid and ashamed. She
half-dreads from the stern cloaked figure. She turns to her home to kiss
her hand to it. But Harlequin with his wand lures her forward. And she
goes, she goes. Then the wand is waved again, and the cloak is off. It is
her husband; and she shrinks, this time in terror. He stands like a stone.
She waits for a blow--for a curse. But suddenly he kneels among the petals
of the forgotten rose. Is it he begging forgiveness of her? She has no
thought for that; only that she always loved him. She bends to him, he
takes her hands. He rises and she lifts her face. Their lips join.
Alice and Uncle Edward draw the curtains.
There! That's how they get back among the gods.
* * * * *
We don't travel to the next Scene too quickly. Alice has gone back to her
little chair, and there she sits silent, her chin cupped in her hand, her
eyes dreamy. Uncle Edward clears his throat noisily several times. Then he
puts on his spectacles and looks at her.
UNCLE EDWARD. Wool-gathering?
ALICE. I love a love story. And she's such a darling, and always, all
through the ages, all through what Clown calls the longest weekend on
record, she falls in love and falls in love ...and falls in love.
UNCLE EDWARD. Come, now, it's only storytelling. Don't let it get on your
mind. Here, I want to speak to you.
[Alice most obediently goes over to him, and he whispers to her.
ALICE. [By no means in a whisper.] But perhaps George is busy with the next
scene.
UNCLE EDWARD. Never you mind.
[Away she goes and through the curtains, leaving Uncle Edward to fill
his pipe. But she's back almost at once and full of smiles.
UNCLE EDWARD. [Anxiously.] Well, what did he say?