THE SCORPION
No! I am sorry.
Ι am your good friend.
I will take you
back to your father.
He is not dead.
I am sure he is not
dead.
THE CHILD. I do not understand you.
LAYLAH. Oh, you shall understand.
Yourfather will make
you understand! [changing again to roughness].
What was
your mother like?
Had she your golden hair, and the com-
plexion like a shaved sow?
And the simper, and the grey
eyes?
I have grey eyes too; but mine are steel—grey, true as
steel; and yours are chill and watery.
But you have your
father’s temper, and his silence, and his will.
THE CHILD. What do you know of my father?
LAYLAH. Nothing.
I
only jested ;
Ι
wanted
to
try
you, to hear what you would say.
Tell me about your
mother.
THE CHILD. She was a fair and noble lady.
She died when
I was born.
LAYLAH. Thank Godl
THE CHILD. I do not understand
LAYLAH. Oh I will your father say, “ Ι do not understand ? ”
What am 1?
Yet I gave him my greatest gift—and I have
yet a greater gift to give him—and I have a gift that he has
always had and I have never lost.
THE CHILD. Are you an enchantress?
You do not talk
sense
LAYLAH. You are the child of an enchanter.
THE CHILD. My father burns enchanters alive when he
catches them.
LEDMIYA [at window]. There is a great concourse with-
out.
The men are returning.
They ride slowly, as in peace.
93