Or be a pretty little musketeer! CHRISTIAN. Roxane is a "_précieuse_," and, in her eyes, I shall be disgraced! CYRANO (_looking at Christian_). Oh! that for the feelings of my soul I had such an interpreter! CHRISTIAN (_despairing_). What would I not give for eloquence! CYRANO (_eagerly_). I'll lend you some! Lend you to me your physical attraction, and the two combined will constitute the hero of a romance. CHRISTIAN. What then? CYRANO. Would you feel equal to repeating the daily lessons I could give you? CHRISTIAN. What is it you propose? CYRANO. In Roxane's eyes you shall not be disgraced. Together, if you will, we can gain her love. Will you allow the soul so ill-restrained by my buckskin here to breathe and sing beneath your embroidered doublet?.... CHRISTIAN. But Cyrano.... CYRANO. .... Christian, will you? CHRISTIAN. Would it give you so much pleasure? CYRANO (_enraptured_). It would.... (_returning to his senses, and lightly_) It would amuse me! A trial this to tempt a poet. Come! We shall complete each other, if you will. You'll walk, and I'll be near you in the shade! I'll be the breath, and you shall be the form! CHRISTIAN. But that letter she expects. I cannot write it.... CYRANO (_taking from his doublet the letter he wrote a while before_). Your letter?.... Here it is! CHRISTIAN. How is this? CYRANO. It lacks nothing but the address. You may send it. Feel no anxiety. It is as it should be. CHRISTIAN. But how is it that you?.... CYRANO. We poets have about us, as a rule, Fine letters to the women we adore.... In our dreams. For we belong to those Whose love is but a fleeting fancy blown Into the rainbow-bubble of a name! Take this and make a truth of what is feigned. My rambling words of rapture flutter like Bewildered birds; you'll cause them to alight. The letter shows, itself--now take it!--that My eloquence was born of artifice. CHRISTIAN. But there may be a few words to change. Thus, written at random, will it fit Roxane? CYRANO. It will fit her like a glove! Human vanity is so credulous that Roxane will never doubt the letter was written for her! CHRISTIAN. You are my dearest friend! (_He throws himself into Cyrano's arms. They remain embracing._) _SCENE XI._