_Vav._ I’m content To sit and deck thee, silent though thou art. And yet I would thou hadst the gift of speech For one brief second--time enough to say, “Vavir, I love thee with my whole, whole heart!” _Flor._ (_aloud_). “Vavir, I love thee with my whole, whole heart!” _Vav._ (_recoiling, horrified_). Who spake? _Flor._ ’Twas I--thy dial! _Vav._ Oh, terrible! What shall I do? _Flor._ Fair lady--have no fear. _Vav._ “_Fair_ lady”--It’s a man! My sisters, help! I am betrayed! _Flor._ Have patience for a while-- _Vav._ Who and what art thou?--speak! _Flor._ (_aside_). What shall I say? (_Aloud._) I am a poor, long-suffering, mortal man, Whom in the stony substance of thy dial, A cruel magician holds incarcerate! _Vav._ Oh, marvellous! _Flor._ And very pitiful! _Vav._ Aye, pitiful indeed, poor prisoned soul! (_advancing_.) _Flor._ “There shalt thou lie,” said he, “till some pure maid Shall have been constant to thine unseen self A twelvemonth and a day.” That maid art thou! _Vav._ Alas! poor man, I fain would set thee free. Yet I have loved not thee, but this thy tomb! _Flor._ Thou canst not separate me from my tomb Except by loving me. In loving it Thou lovest me who am bound up with it; And in so loving me--provided that Thy love, a twelvemonth old, lasts one day more-- Thou givest me my freedom and my life! If thou hast loved thy dial thou hast loved me. _Vav._ Yes, I have loved my dial! _Flor._ But earnestly-- With a surpassing love? _Vav._ I cannot say-- I am ill-versed in the degrees of love. Judge for thyself--When I am weak and ill My sisters place my couch beside my dial That I may lay my poor thin hand on it: It gives me life and strength--I know not why. Judge for thyself-- When the black winter comes my sisters weep To see me weep my darling’s brief day-life; And when the bright, long summer days return They join my joy--because with Light comes Hope, And Hope is Life--and they would have me live! Judge for thyself-- At dawn of day I seek my dial alone, To watch its daily waking into life; At set of sun I come to it again, To kiss “good night” upon its fading shade: Then, with a prayer that I may lay to heart The lesson of its silent eloquence, I seek my bed. So speeds my little life. If this be love, then have I loved indeed! Judge for thyself. (_Rises._) _Enter MELUSINE (a small hand-mirror hangs from her waist)._ _Mel._ Vavir, the evening dews are falling fast; The night air teems with damp. So, come, dear love, Return at once with me.