The Poem

LYRICAL AND DRAMATIC. 107 SCENE II. A year later. Vaughan's house in Mayfair. Peres bedroom. Moonlight streams through open window tn the corridor. Percy asleep. He dreams un- easily, and after a little wakes up with a start and @ Cry. PERCY. H! I had such a bad dream. I dreamt I was straining out after a beautiful bird, and suddenly it stopped, and then I held it in my hands, and it was happy, and then I dropped down somehow into the darkness and the bird had gone—only it got so con- fused, and I woke up. I hear steps! ESME [22 corridor]. Did you call, Percy? I heard a cry as if you were in pain. | PERCY. Esmé, I will come and talk to you in the moon- light. I want to say something that I couldn’t say before, because my heart choked me. ESME. Come out, Percy, the moon is so white, looking out of the black sky. The sky is quite black near the moon; only far down where there are no more bright stars it is a deep, deep blue. It is bluer and deeper than the sea. | .