Scene II A Chamber in the Palace
Enter ALLADINE and PALOMIDES.
PALOMIDES.
All will be ready to-morrow. We cannot wait longer. He prowls like a madman through the corridors of the palace; I met him even now. He looked at me without a word. I passed; and as I turned, I saw him slyly laugh, shaking his keys. When he perceived that I was looking at him, he smiled at me, making signs of friendship. He must have some secret project, and we are in the hands of a master whose reason begins to totter…. To-morrow we shall be far away…. Yonder there are wonderful countries that resemble thine…. Astolaine has already provided for our flight and for my sisters’….
Alladine
What has she said?
Palomides
Nothing, nothing…. You will see everything about my father’s castle,—after days of sea and days of forests—you will see lakes and mountains … not like these, under a sky that looks like the vault of a cave, with black trees that the storms destroy … but a sky beneath which there is nothing more to fear,—forests that are always awake, flowers that do not close….
Alladine
She wept?
Palomides
What are you asking?… There is something there of which we have no right to speak, do you understand?… There is a life there that does not belong to our poor life, and which love has no right to approach except in silence…. We are here, like two beggars in rags, when I think of it…. Go! go!… I could tell you things….
Alladine
Palomides!… What is the matter?
Palomides
Go! go!… I have seen tears that came from further than the eyes…. There is something else…. It may be, nevertheless, that we are right … but how I regret being right so, my God!… Go!… I will tell you to-morrow … to-morrow … to-morrow…. [Exeunt severally.