Gormflaith:
Your anger is not too great, Madam; I grieve
That one so old as Merryn should act thus--
So old and trusted and favoured, and so callous.
Goneril:
The Queen has had no food since yester-night.
Gormflaith:
Madam, that is too monstrous to conceive:
I will seek food. I will prepare it now.
Goneril:
Stay here: and know, if the Queen is left again,
You shall be beaten with two rods at once.
[She picks up the cup and goes out by the door beyond the bed.]
[GORMFLAITH turns the chair a little away from the bed so that she can
watch the jar door, and, seating herself, draws a letter from her bosom.]
Gormflaith (to herself, reading):
"Open your window when the moon is dead,
And I will come again.
The men say everywhere that you are faithless,
The women say your face is a false face
And your eyes shifty eyes. Ah, but I love you, Gormflaith.
Do not forget your window-latch to-night,
For when the moon is dead the house is still."
[LEAR again parts the door-curtains at the back, and, seeing GORMFLAITH,
enters. At the first slight rustle of the curtains GORMFLAITH stealthily
slips the letter back into her bosom before turning gradually, a finger
to her lips, to see who approaches her.]
Lear (leaning over the side of her chair):
Lady, what do you read?
Gormflaith: