SHE. Nonsense! But listen to the rest of the story. The most
interesting part is about this very orchard.
HE. Really!
SHE. Yes. This orchard, it seems, was here before the house was. It was
part of an old farm where he and she--the unhappy lovers, you know--
stopped one day, while they were out driving, and asked for something
to eat. The farmer's wife was busy, but she gave them each a glass of
milk, and told them they could eat all the cherries they wanted.
So they picked a hatful of cherries, and ate them, sitting on a bench
like this one. And then he fell in love with her. . . .
HE. And . . . didn't tell her so. . . .
_She glances at him in alarm. His self-possession has vanished. He is
pale and frightened, but there is a desperate look in his eyes, as if
some unknown power were forcing him to do something very rash. In
short, he seems like a young man who has just fallen in love_.
SHE. (_hastily_) So you see this orchard is haunted, too!
HE. I feel it. I seem to hear the ghost of that old-time lover
whispering to me. . . .
SHE. (_provocatively_) Indeed! What does he say?
HE. He says: "I was a coward; you must be bold. I was silent; you must
speak out."
SHE. (_mischievously_) That's very curious--because that old lover
isn't dead at all. He's a Congressman or Senator or something, the
Agent says.
HE. (_earnestly_) It's all the same. His youth is dead; and it is
his youth that speaks to me.
SHE. _quickly_ You mustn't believe all that ghosts tell you.
HE. Oh, but I must. For they know the folly of silence--the bitterness
of cowardice.
SHE. The circumstances were--slightly--different, weren't they?
HE. (_stubbornly_) I don't care!
SHE. (_soberly_) You know perfectly well it's no use.
HE. I can't help that!
SHE. Please! You simply mustn't! It's disgraceful!
HE. What's disgraceful?
SHE. (_confused_) What you are going to say.
HE. (_simply_) Only that I love you. What is there disgraceful about
that? It's beautiful!
SHE. It's wrong.
HE. It's inevitable.
SHE. Why inevitable? Can't you talk with a girl in an orchard for half
an hour without falling in love with her?
HE. Not if the girl is you.
SHE. But why especially _me_?
HE. I don't know. Love--is a mystery. I only know that I was destined
to love you.
SHE. How can you be so sure?
HE. Because you have changed the world for me. It's as though I had
been groping about in the dark, and then--sunrise! And there's a queer
feeling here. (_He puts his hand on his heart_.) To tell the honest
truth, there's a still queerer feeling in the pit of my stomach.
It's a gone feeling, if you must know. And my knees are weak. I know
now why men used to fall on their knees when they told a girl they
loved her; it was because they couldn't stand up. And there's a feeling
in my feet as though I were walking on air. And--
SHE. (_faintly_) That's enough!
HE. And I could die for you and be glad of the chance. It's perfectly
absurd, but it's absolutely true. I've never spoken to you before, and
heaven knows I may never get a chance to speak to you again, but I'd
never forgive myself if I didn't say this to you now. I love you! love
you! love you! Now tell me I'm a fool. Tell me to go. Anything--I've
said my say. . . . Why don't you speak?
SHE. I--I've nothing to say--except--except that I--well--(_almost
inaudibly_) I feel some of those symptoms myself.
ME. (_triumphantly_) You love me!
SHE. I--don't know. Yes. Perhaps.
HE. Then kiss me!
SHE. (_doubtfully_) No. . . .
HE. Kiss me!
SHE. (_tormentedly_) Oh, what's the use?
HE. I don't know. I don't care. I only know that we love each other.
SHE. (_after a moment's hesitation, desperately_) I don't care,
either! I do want to kiss you.
_She does. . . . He is the first to awake from the ecstasy_.