As fully mine as never in my dreams! A maiden's life is much more strictly ruled By pressure of the air, than thou conceivest, To whom it seems most natural to be free. The evening ne'er must come, when I should thus Stand here, with all the weight of heavy shadows, My parents' eyes, all, all behind me thrust, Involved in yon dark hangings at my back, And this brave landscape with the golden stars, The gentle breeze, the bushes, thus before me. (With growing agitation.) The evening ne'er must come, when I should see All this with eyes like these, to say to me: Here lies a road that shimmers in the moonlight: Before the gentle breeze the next light cloudlet Impels to meet the moon, a man could run That road unto its end, between the hedges, Then comes a cross-road, now a planted field, And then the shadow of the standing corn, At last a garden! There his hand would touch At once a curtain, back of which is all: All kissing, laughing, all the happiness This world can give promiscuously flung About like balls of golden wool, such bliss That but a drop of it on parched lips Suffices to be lighter than a flame, To see no more of difficulty, nor To understand what men call ugliness! (Almost shrieking.) The evening ne'er must come, that with a thousand Unfettered tongues should cry to me: why not? Why hast thou never run in dark of night That road? Thy feet were young, thy breath sufficient: Why hast thou saved it, that thou mightst have plenty To weep a thousand nights upon thy pillow? [She turns her back to the window, clutches the table, collapses and falls to her knees, and remains thus, her face pressed to the table, her body shaken with weeping. A long pause.] MERCHANT. And if the first door I should open wide, The only locked one on this road of love? [He opens the small doorway leading into the garden on the right; the moonlight enters.] SOBEIDE (still kneeling by the table). Art thou so cruel as, in this first hour, To make a silly pastime of my weeping! Art thou so fain to put thy scorn upon me? Art thou so proud of holding me securely?