JANE. I know it, Gilbert, and it makes me weep. GILBERT. For joy, isn't it? Say it is for joy! Oh, I need to believe it. There is only that in the world--to be loved. I have only a poor workingman's heart, but my Jane must love me. Why do you always talk to me about what I have done for you? One single word of love from you puts all the gratitude on my side. I will damn myself and commit a crime, whenever you wish it. You will be my wife, won't you, and you love me? Oh, Jane, for one look of your eyes I would give my work and my labor; for one smile, my life; for one kiss, my soul. JANE. What a noble heart you have, Gilbert. GILBERT. Listen to me, Jane--laugh at me if you will; I am mad, I am jealous! I will tell you why. Do not get angry! It seems to me, for some time I have seen several young lords prowling around here. Do you know, Jane, I am thirty-two years old. For a poor, clumsy, badly-dressed workman like myself, who am no longer young, who am not handsome, what a misery it is to love a charming, beautiful girl of seventeen, who attracts all the handsome, gold-bedizened young nobles around her, as a light attracts the butterflies. Oh, I suffer; indeed, I do! But I never blame you, even in my thoughts! You, so honest, so pure; you, whose brow has never been touched, except by my lips. I only feel, sometimes, that you look on the Queen's cavalcades and retinues with too much pleasure, that you enjoy too much the fine suits of velvet and satin, under which there are no hearts, no souls. Forgive me. My God! why do so many young noblemen come around here? Why am I not handsome, young, noble, rich? Gilbert the engraver--that is all I am! They are Lord Chandos, Lord Gerard Fitz-Gerard, Earl of Arundel, the Duke of Norfolk! Oh, how I hate them! I spend my life engraving the handles of their swords, which I would like to plunge into their bowels. JANE. Gilbert! GILBERT. I beg your pardon, Jane! Love makes us very wicked, doesn't it? JANE. No, very good; for you are good, Gilbert. GILBERT. Oh, how much I love you! It increases every day. I would like to die for you! Love me or not, you can do as you please. I am mad. Forgive all that I have said. It is late: I must leave you! Good-by! Oh, how I hate to leave you! Go in! Haven't you your key? JANE. No; I haven't had it for several days. GILBERT. Take mine. Until to-morrow morning! Jane, don't forget this! To-day I am still your father: in one week I shall be your husband. [_He kisses her on the forehead and exits._ JANE (_alone_). My husband! Oh, no! I will never commit that crime. Poor Gilbert! he loves me truly; and the other--ah, provided I have not preferred vanity to love! Unhappy woman that I am, into whose power have I fallen! Oh, I am most thankless and most guilty! I hear footsteps! Let me get in quickly. [_Goes into house._ SCENE IV _Gilbert, A Man enveloped in cloak and wearing a yellow cap. The Man holds Gilbert by the hand_ GILBERT.