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this trinket out of the spring. That is why I put another on, and I tell you it has changed me; so put that ring upon your finger.

Perdican-You got this out of the water at the risk of falling in, Camille? Am I dreaming? Am I dreaming? Here it is again, and you put it on my finger. O Camille, why do you give me back this sad relic of my lost happiness? Tell me, you foolish and fickle girl, why you go away? Why do you stay? Why do you change every hour like this stone in each new light?

Are you

Camille Do you know woman's heart, Perdican? convinced of her inconstancy, and that she really changes her mind whenever she changes her mood? Some say not. Undoubtedly we are often forced to play a part, even to tell liesI am frank, you see; but are you sure that everything in a woman lies when her tongue lies? Have you ever reflected on the nature of this weak and undisciplined creature, and on the severity with which she is judged, and the part that she is compelled to play? Who knows whether, constrained by the world to continual deceit, the head of this brainless being may not finally learn to take a certain pleasure in it; may she not tell lies for amusement sometimes, as she is so often forced to tell them for necessity?

Perdican-I understand none of this; I never lie; I love you, Camille, and that is all I know.

Camille You say you love me, and that you never lie?
Perdican- Never!

Camille-Yet here's somebody who says that accident befalls you occasionally. [She raises the tapestry, and shows Rosette fainting in a chair.] What will you say to this child, Perdican, when she asks you to account for your words? If you never lie, why has she fainted on hearing you say that you love me? I leave her with you: try and bring her to life. [Is about to go.] Perdican One moment, Camille! Hear me!

Camille-What have you to say to me? It is to Rosette you must answer. I do not love you; I did not seek this hapless child in her cottage to use her as a toy, a foil; I did not recklessly repeat to her the burning words I had addressed to others; I did not feign to cast to the winds the tokens of a cherished attachment, for her sake; I did not put my chain round her neck; I did not promise to marry her!

Perdican-Listen to me! listen to me!

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Camille-I saw you smile just now when I said I had not been able to go to the fountain. Yes, I was there and heard it all; but God is my witness that I would not have done as you did. What will you do with that girl now, when, with your kisses still burning on her lips, she weeps and points to the wound you have dealt her? You wished to revenge yourself upon me, did you not, for a letter I wrote to my convent? You were bent on piercing my soul at any cost, not caring whether your poisoned dart wounded this child, if it but struck me through her. I had boasted of having made you love me, and of causing you regret. Did that wound your noble pride? Well then, hear me say it,—you love me, but you will marry that girl or you are a poor creature.

Perdican-Yes, I will marry her.

Camille-You will do well.

Perdican- Very well, and much better than if I married you. What excites you to such a degree, Camille? The child has fainted; we can easily bring her to,- we only need a smellingbottle. You wish to convict me of having lied once in my life, and you have done so; but I think you are rather self-confident in deciding when. Come, help me to restore Rosette. [Exeunt.

Scene: An oratory. Enter Camille, and throws herself at the foot of the altar.

Camille-O my God, hast thou abandoned me? Thou knowest that I came hither faithful to thee; when I refused to take another spouse, thou knowest that I spoke in all sincerity before thee and my own soul; thou knowest it, O Father! and wilt thou no longer accept me? Oh, wherefore hast thou made truth itself to lie? Why am I so weak? Ah, wretched girl! I cannot even pray.

Enter Perdican

Perdican-Pride, most fatal of all the counselors of humanity, why have you come between me and this girl? See her, pale and distraught, pressing her face and breast against these senseless stones. She could have loved me, and we were born for one another. O pride! what brought you to our lips when our hands were ready to be joined?

Camille-Who has followed me? Whose voice do I hear beneath this vault? Is it you, Perdican?

Perdican Fools that we are! We love each other! What have you been dreaming, Camille? What futile speech, what wretched folly has swept between us like a blast from the tombs? Which of us tried to deceive the other? Alas, when life itself is such a painful dream, why seek to fill it with worse ones of our own? O God! happiness is a pearl so rarely found in this stormy sea! Thou hadst given it to us, thou hadst rescued this treasure from the abyss for us; and like spoiled children as we are, we treated it as a plaything. The green path which led us toward each other sloped so gently, and was so strewn with flowers, it vanished in such a calm horizon-needs was that words, and vanity, and anger should hurl their shapeless crags across this celestial path, which would have led us to thee in an embrace! Needs was that we should wrong and wound each other, for we are human! O fools! and we love each other! [He clasps her in his arms.]

Camille - Yes, Perdican, we love each other! Let me feel it on your heart. The God who sees us will not be angry: he wills that I should love you; he has known it these fifteen years. Perdican-Dearest being, you are mine! [He kisses her; a shriek is heard from behind the altar.]

Camille My foster-sister's voice!

Perdican - How came she here? I left her on the staircase when you sent for me. She must have followed me without my knowledge.

Camille - Come this way: the cry came from here.

Perdican What do I fear? my hands seem bathed in blood. Camille - The poor child must have overheard us, and she has fainted again: come and help her! Ah, it is all too cruel!

Perdican-No, I cannot go,-I am numb with mortal terror. Go, Camille, and try to help her. [Exit Camille.] O God, I beseech thee, make me not a murderer! Thou seest our hearts: we are two senseless children who have been playing with life and death. God of justice, do not let Rosette die! I will find her a husband, I will repair the evil I have done; - she is young, she shall be rich and happy. Oh, do not refuse me this, my God! thou canst bless four of thy children! [Re-enter Camille.] Well, Camille?

Camille-She is dead. Farewell, Perdican.

From 'Selections from the Prose and Poetry of Alfred de Musset,' Copyright 1870, by Hurd & Houghton

R

VERGISS MEIN NICHT

EMEMBER! when the morn with sweet affright
Opens her portals to the king of day;
Remember! when the melancholy night
All silver-veiled pursues her darkling way;
Or when thy pulses wake at pleasure's tone:
When twilight shades to gentle dreams invite,
List to a voice which from the forest lone
Murmurs, Remember!

Remember! When inexorable fate

Hath parted finally my lot from thine,

When absence, grief, and time have laid their weight
With crushing power on this heart of mine,—
Think of my love, think of my last farewell;

Absence nor time can constancy abate:

While my heart beats, its every throb shall tell,
Remember!

Remember! When beneath the chilling ground
My weary heart has found a lasting sleep,
And when in after time, above the mound,

The pale blue flower its gentle watch doth keep,—

I shall not see thee more; but ever nigh,

Like sister true my soul will hover round:

List to a voice which through the night will sigh,

Remember!

From Selections from the Prose and Poetry of Alfred de Musset.' right 1870, by Hurd & Houghton

Copy

THE

FROM TO A COMRADE›

HE joy of meeting makes us love farewell;
We gather once again around the hearth,
And thou wilt tell

All that thy keen experience has been
Of pleasure, danger, misadventure, mirth,
And unforeseen. .

And all without an angry word the while,
Or self-compassion,- naught dost thou recall
Save for a smile;

Thou knowest how to lend good fortune grace, And how to mock what'er ill luck befall

With laughing face.

But friend, go not again so far away;
In need of some small help I always stand,
Come whatso may;

I know not whither leads this path of mine,
But I can tread it better when my hand
Is clasped in thine.

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