_Jas._ Give me no blessing. I have done thee a wrong that is beyond the power of man to repair. Think of the deepest injury that man’s wickedness has ever wrought on thee, and place it to my account. (_DAN’L thunderstruck._) If it lies within thee to extend the hand of pardon to him who laid waste thine home and made thy life desolate, read in my blighted life the punishment that the sin of my youth has brought upon me in my old age. As I have sinned, so before Heaven I have atoned! [_Exit SIR JASPER._ _Dan._ (_as SIR JASPER’S meaning breaks upon him_). Stay! come back--if this be not a devil-born dream, come back and hear me out. Oh, source of all the sorrow I have known! Oh, black and bitter curse of two poor lives! Thy life for hers--thy cursed life for hers! _Dor._ Father, spare him--be merciful--be just. He is an old man now--thou art an old man--is it in the winter of your lives that the heart-burnings of hot youth are to be avenged? He has wronged thee, but he has suffered and will yet suffer. As I have prevailed to turn thee to mankind, so let me, thy daughter--thy daughter indeed--thine own flesh--_her_ own flesh--prevail against this one surviving sorrow. Spare him and pardon him--for her sake and for mine! (_Kneels._) _Enter GEOFFREY._ _Dan._ Oh, Dorothy, dead and in heaven, when God took thee He left an angel behind to plead for thee and for this man! It is Heaven’s voice--my anger has gone out of me! _Geof._ Dorothy, wilt thou believe now that it was for thy sake and for thy father’s that I did deceive thee? (_DOROTHY rises; DAN’L sits._) Wilt thou believe, now, that I love thee truly and beyond all on earth? _Dor._ Oh, Geoffrey! forgive me--forgive me! I acted in haste! I knew not what I did! (_Embracing him._) _Geof._ My darling! (_Kisses her._) _Dor._ Art thou happy, Geoffrey? _Geof._ Passing happy! And thou? _Dor._ Passing happy! GRETCHEN. _A PLAY_, IN FOUR ACTS. _First produced at the Olympic Theatre, on March 24th, 1879._ DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. DOMINIC. ANSELM. FAUSTUS. GOTTFRIED. MEPHISTO. AGATHA. BESSIE. BARBARA. LISA. GRETCHEN. MARTHA. FRIEDRICH. NOTE.--The leading idea of this play was suggested by Goethe’s “Faust.” The author is indebted to that work for the scene between Mephisto and Martha in Act II. In every other respect the dialogue is original. GRETCHEN. ACT I. SCENE.--_Under the cloisters of a monastery. In the centre of the stage a graveyard; in the graveyard, conspicuous among other tombs, is a tall monument. Procession of _Monks_ crosses the stage at back. Moonlight._ _DOMINIC discovered seated, reading. To him enters ANSELM._ _Dom._ _Pax vobiscum_, father! _Ans._ _Benedicite!_ I am rejoiced that, after many perils By sea and land, I am once more among you. How fares our poor sick Faustus?