But as the play continued she must listen. It was her very first play
and soon it was thrilling to her so that she forgot, for a time, even
Martin. Or rather Martin was mingled with it, absorbed in it, part of
it, and she was there too sharing with him the very action of the
story. It was a very old-fashioned play about a little Charity girl who
was brought up by a kindly middle-aged gentleman who cared for nothing
but books. He brought her up on his own plan with a view to marrying
her afterwards. But meanwhile, of course, she saw a handsome young
soldier who was young like herself, and she was naturally bored with
the studious gentleman. Maggie shared all the feelings of the Charity
girl. Had she been brought up, say by a man like Mr. Trenchard and then
had met Martin, why, of course, she could have gone only one way.
The soldier was not like Martin, being slim and curled and beautiful,
nor was the studious gentleman like Mr. Trenchard, being thin and tall
with a face like a monk and a beautiful voice. But the girl was like
Maggie, prettier of course, and with artful ways, but untidy a little
and not very well educated. At the first interval, when the lights were
up and the band was playing and the people walking, Martin whispered:
"Do you like it, Maggie?"
"I love it," she answered.
And then they just sat there, without another word between them,
pressed close together.
A little song ran through the play--one of Burns's most famous songs,
although Maggie, who had never read anything, did not know that. The
verses were:
O my luve's like a red, red rose That's newly sprung in June: O my
luve's like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune!
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I: And I will luve
thee still, my dear, Till a' the seas gang dry:
Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi' the sun; I
will luve thee still, my dear, While the sands o' life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only Luve, And fare thee weel a while! And I
will come again, my Luve, Tho' it were ten thousand mile.
First the handsome soldier sang this to the Charity girl, and then,
because it was a sentimental tune, it was always turning up through the
play, and if one of the characters were not singing it the orchestra
was quietly playing it. Maggie loved it; she was not sentimental but
she was simple, and the tune seemed at once to belong to herself and to
Martin by natural right.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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