Charles Di Tocca - BestLightNovel.com
You’re reading novel Charles Di Tocca Part 12 online at BestLightNovel.com. Please use the follow button to get notification about the latest chapter next time when you visit BestLightNovel.com. Use F11 button to read novel in full-screen(PC only). Drop by anytime you want to read free – fast – latest novel. It’s great if you could leave a comment, share your opinion about the new chapters, new novel with others on the internet. We’ll do our best to bring you the finest, latest novel everyday. Enjoy
HELENA: And may all hours!
ANTONIO: All! tho' we two will still Be more than destiny--which cannot grasp Beyond the grave.
HELENA: 'Tis sadly put, my lord.
ANTONIO: Ah, sadly, loathly; but, my Helena--
HELENA: I would not sink from it, the simple sun-- Fade to a tomb! What dirging hast thou heard To mind thee of it?
ANTONIO: Love is a bliss too bright To rest on earth. With it G.o.d should give us Ever to soar above mortality.
But you must know----!
HELENA: Not yet, tell me not yet!
Dimly I see the burden in your eyes, But dare not take it yet into my own.
Let us a little look upon the moon, Forgetting. (_They seat themselves._)
ANTONIO (_musingly_): These hands--this hair-- (_Caressing them._)
HELENA: Like a farewell Your touch falls on them.
ANTONIO (_moved_): To a father yield them?
HELENA: Antonio?
ANTONIO (_still caressing_): No, no! It cannot be!
HELENA: This dread--and shrinking--let me have it!--speak!
You mean--look on me!--mean, your father?--
ANTONIO: Ah!
It must not! must not!
HELENA: Do you mean--he--No!
Let him not touch me even in thy thought, To me come nearer than a father may!
ANTONIO: He's swept by the sweet contagion of you, wrapt In a fierce spell by your effulgent youth.
HELENA: Say, say it not! To him I but smiled up-- But smiled!
ANTONIO: He knew not that such smiles could dawn In a bare world. And now is flame; would take Your tenderness into his arms and hear Seized to him the warm music of your heart.
O, I could be for him--he is my father-- Prometheus stormed and gnawed on Caucasus, Tantalus ever near the slipping wave, Or torn and tossed to burning martyrdom-- But not--not this!
HELENA: Then, flight! In it we may Find haven and new nurture for our bliss.
ANTONIO: Snap from his hunger this one hope, so he Must starve? Push him who has but learned there's light Back into yawning blindness? Ah, not flight!
HELENA: I know he is your father, and my days Have been all fatherless, tho' I have made Me child to every wind that had caress And to each lonely tree of the deep wood-- Oft envious of those who touch gray hairs, Or spend desire on filial grief and pang.
And most have you a softness in him kept, Been to him more than empire's tyranny-- But baffled none can measure him nor trust!
ANTONIO: Yet must we wait.
HELENA: When waiting shall but goad The speed of peril?
ANTONIO: Still: and strain to win Him from this brink.--If vainly, then birth, pity, And memory shall fall from me!--all, all, But fierceness for thy peace!
HELENA: My Antony!
ANTONIO: And fierceness without falter!
HELENA: I am thine, Thine more than immortality is G.o.d's!
Hear, does the nightingale not tell it thee?
The stars do they not tremble it, the moon Murmur it argently into thine eyes?
ANTONIO: Ah, sorceress! You need but breathe to put Abysm from us; but build words to float us On infinite ecstasy. (_Kisses her._)
HELENA: How, how thy kisses Sing in me!
ANTONIO: From my heart they do but send Echoes born of thy beauty mid its strings!
HELENA: Then would I lean forever at thy lips, Lose no reverberance, no ring, no waft, Hear nothing everlastingly but them!
(_A mournful chant is borne from the Convent. They slowly unclasp, awed._)
ANTONIO: Weary with vigil does it swell and sink, Moaning the dead.
HELENA: Ah, no! There are no dead To-night in all the world. Could G.o.d see them Lie cold and wondrous still, while we are rich In warmth and throb!
ANTONIO: Yet, hear. The funeral tread Of the old sea sighs in each strain, and breaks.
HELENA: As I were drowned and heard it over me, It cometh--cometh!
(_Her head droops back on his arm. A pause._)
ANTONIO (_touching her face_): Cold! cold!--your lips--your brow!
And you are pale as with a prophecy!
HELENA: Oh--oh!
ANTONIO: Your spirit is not in you but Afar and suffering!
HELENA: A vision sweeps me.
ANTONIO: Awake from it!
HELENA (_recovering_): A waste of waves that beat Upon a cliff--and beat! Yet thou and I Had place in it.
ANTONIO: Come to yon arbour, come.
The moon has looked too long on the sad earth, And can reflect but sorrow.
