Clair de Lune Part 34

PRINCE [_approaching her_]

Anne, dear, how----

[_The QUEEN laughs and backs away from him, where he stands with his arms stretched out towards her. In her laugh suddenly there is a slight sob._]

QUEEN

Stand that way another instant, Charles. Ah, here is everything I have wanted, schemed for, wept about, in the position I have dreamt of it.

[_She glances out at the park._] The back drop is perfect also.

Birds' song, the freshness of morning, sunlight, youth,--youth to be gotten through somehow. However, here it all is, a dream--and not turning pale as all the others did in daylight. Yet, strangely enough, I cannot find a self in me to come forward and take these things as they are now.

PRINCE

Anne, Anne, for G.o.d's sake--I swear to you I can explain everything.

QUEEN

Try not to let your fear of personal consequences intercept the pity you should feel for me.

PRINCE

Anne, I love you, I love you.

QUEEN

Why, why is it that people cannot watch anything die in silence? I suppose after all you are not sufficiently ruthless to carry off your own selfishness with any sort of dignity.

PRINCE [_sulkily_]

You do not believe me. You credit the report of a woman who has every reason to hate me.

QUEEN

No, I credit intuition, instinct that is always stinging past what one wants to think and flinging some dismantled idol across one's feet.

Somehow, from looking down at a lie one can never look up to that particular thing again.

PRINCE

It was the lie you minded more than what I did.

QUEEN

I think a truth, no matter of what kind, would have given me some point of exhilaration upon which to try you out.

PRINCE

Oh, Anne, I do not understand you.

QUEEN

It is as well we found out. How jocosely casual we are about our spirits. We tie them into some bondage of eternity for the security of a night's lodging, and then wonder that life grows sour upon our palate. [_she smiles over at CHARLES'S bewilderment_] Which means, in the literal terms of those who credit reincarnation, that if we married, those things you would have to do to keep your heart up would cause your next showing to degenerate into a slight motion of slime at the base of mountains. Think of the distance lost, Charles, for such a little mincing forward step. Come, the morning wanes. Fortunately there are things to do, no matter what cannot be done. I shall return you half of your fortune, which, you will remember, is wholly confiscate to the Crown, but upon the condition that you pa.s.s the fleeting future from well under my nose. I could not bear to be incessantly reading my past, which is printed all over you in large letters. Really, Charles, you are a s.h.i.+fting ma.s.s of monuments to the hope of a ridiculous person.

PRINCE

You have broken my heart. I may as well go, I suppose.

QUEEN

Thank G.o.d, I have a literal mind, for what you have said, as you have said it, literally means, "I see you have found me out, so I suppose there is no use wasting any more time around here."

PRINCE

You are impossible. You think too quickly.

QUEEN [_smiling broadly_]

Charles, Charles, go now, now, while I am smiling at you. It will be nice to remember our saying good-bye and smiling.

[_She comes to him, takes his hand, looks up at him, but he will not let his face be natural. She smooths his face, apparently looking for some effect of Nature. Finally his features do relax into a rather sheepish, furtive smile._]

Ah, now, I see you do not want to talk about it any more, and you do want to get right away. There, go.

[_She pushes him toward the door, and out through it, and he is heard remonstrating with her down the hallway. In a few seconds she re-enters with his boutonniere in her hand. She looks rather strangely about her, and presses his flower to her mouth._]

QUEEN

My child, my love, it had to be good-bye this time.

[_Far in the distance the air of "Clair de Lune" is being played upon myriad guitars and flutes._]

_CURTAIN_