MERCHANT (after a pause). His love was like to thine? [SOBEIDE nods.] But then, why then, how has it come to pass That he was not the one-- SOBEIDE Why, we were poor! No, more than poor, thou knowst. His father, too. Poor too. Besides, a gloomy man, as hard As mine was all too soft, and on him weighing As mine on me. The whole much easier To live through than to put in words. For years It lasted. We were children when it started, Ere long as tired as foals, too early harnessed For drawing heavy wagons in the harvest. MERCHANT. But let me tell thee, this cannot be true About his father. I know old Shalnassar, The carpet-dealer. Well, he is a graybeard, And he who will may speak good of his name, But I will not. A wicked, bad old man! SOBEIDE. May be, all one. To him it is his father. I ne'er have seen him. Ganem sees him so. He calls him sick, is saddened when he speaks Of him. And therefore I have never seen him, That is, not since my childhood, when I saw Him now and then upon the window leaning. MERCHANT. But he's not poor, no, anything but poor! SOBEIDE (sure of her facts, sadly smiling). Thinkst thou I should be here? MERCHANT. And he? SOBEIDE. What, he? MERCHANT. He clearly made thee feel He thought impossible, what he and thou Had wished for years and long held possible? SOBEIDE. Why, for it was impossible? ... and then "Had wished for years"--thou seest, all these matters Are different, and the words we use Are different. At one time this has ripened, But to decay again. For there are moments With cheeks that burn like the eternal suns-- When somewhere hovers mute an unconfessed Confession, somewhere vanishes in air The echo of a call that never reached Its utterance; here in me something whispers, "I yielded to him;" mark: in thought! "I yielded"-- The following moment swallows everything, As night the lightning flash ... How all began And ended? Well, in this wise: first I sealed My lips, soon then set seal upon my eye-lids, And he-- MERCHANT. Well, how was he?