Scene IV A Terrace at the Exit of the Vaults. Enter Golaud and Pélléas
Pélléas
Ah! I breathe at last!… I thought, one moment, I was going to be ill in those enormous crypts; I was on the point of falling…. There is a damp air there, heavy as a leaden dew, and darkness thick as a poisoned paste…. And now, all the air of all the sea!… There is a fresh wind, see; fresh as a leaf that has just opened, over the little green waves…. Hold! the flowers have just been watered at the foot of the terrace, and the smell of the verdure and the wet roses comes up to us…. It must be nearly noon; they are already in the shadow of the tower…. It is noon; I hear the bells ringing, and the children are going down to the beach to bathe…. I did not know that we had stayed so long in the caverns….
Golaud
We went down towards eleven o’clock….
Pélléas
Earlier; it must have been earlier; I heard it strike half-past ten.
Golaud
Half-past ten or a quarter to eleven….
Pélléas
They have opened all the windows of the castle. It will be unusually hot this afternoon…. Look, there is mother with Mélisande at a window of the tower….
Golaud
Yes; they have taken refuge on the shady side.—Speaking of Mélisande, I heard what passed and what was said last night. I am quite aware all that is but child’s play; but it need not be repeated. Mélisande is very young and very impressionable; and she must be treated the more circumspectly that she is perhaps with child at this moment…. She is very delicate, hardly woman; and the least emotion might bring on a mishap. It is not the first time I have noticed there might be something between you…. You are older than she; it will suffice to have told you…. Avoid her as much as possible; without affectation moreover; without affectation….—What is it I see yonder on the highway toward the forest?…
Pélléas
Some herds they are leading to the city….
Golaud
They cry like lost children; you would say they smelt the butcher already.—It will be time for dinner.—What a fine day! What a capital day for the harvest!… [Exeunt.