Collected Works (Vol. III)

34 WHY JESUS WEPT Do I perspire now? Do my cheeks run down nasty wet tears? Is my love a mono- tonous harping on one word? Love, Percy —dare I call you Percy? SiR PERcY. If I may call you Angela. ANGELA. Love, Percy (she lays one hand on his shoulder and looks deeply in his eyes), is wit, and laughter, and wisdom; all of love, and in it; but love without these is a mawkish, moonish distemper of folly—and will pass. I shall not pass, my love!—Ah! you feel my breath upon your face |! Sir PERcY. ~Yes—do not! ANGELA. I shall do so—you dare not move away from me! I have you? No? Ah, Percy, Percy, will you break a heart that only beats for you? Sir PERCY. You woo so well that I think you must have loved before. ANGELA. Ay! but not like this. If I have loved it was but to study love, to learn his arts; to make myself the queen I am, that I might have strength to win you — never before has my heart been touched. Now my arts fail me. I am a poor and simple girl; and my eyes are uching with the sight of you, and my lips are mad to kiss you! SiR PERCY. Your breath is like a mist of rose-dawn about me. ANGELA (aszde). O true apothecary! Thy drugs are! ex- pensive, but well worth the money. 1 Here and repeatedly below she quotes or alters a well-known passage in Shakespeare. (Aloud.) Nay! but I will go. You have shamed me enough. Go! Go! SIR PERCY. Nay ! I know better ofa sudden. It is you that I love ! [He would kiss her. She draws away. ANGELA, False, fickle wretch ! Sir PERCY. I will ! I will! ANGELA. No! No! SIR PERCY. Yes, I was a fool, an ass, a brute. A village girl ! ANGELA. Blood will have blood, they say. Sir PERCY. You are my equal, Angela! You shali he mine, mine, mine ! ANGELA. If I will not? Sir PERCY. You will. You have written more than this. ANGELA, If I must— Sir PERCY. You must. ANGELA. Ah love! (She yields herself up to him. A long pause.) Learn my first lesson; at these great moments of life, silence is the best. (Aszde.) There is a more important one. Had that silly gowk but the wit to lead him—d_fizz—where were I now? Nota drain on hisstores, but a—rofessor Spooner,} 1 A well-known Oxford Professor, who en- joys the reputation of having invented the blunder of the class ‘‘ half-warmed fish” for ‘¢ half-formed wish.”