Is it so? Why, then We are together still, my heart, my life! We will not struggle as we sink to rest. A SOLDIER Man and woman, come your ways! SECOND SOLDIER The river Waits, your marriage bed is spread! [_The knitting women sing from the river bank._ THE WOMEN _We are the tricoteuses! Our wool we knit beneath the sun and moon! Knit! knit! knitting every one!_ _We are the tricoteuses! The skein we knit is ravelled out full soon! Knit! knit! the knitting now is done!_ YVETTE The light is growing in the east! My heart It is so full I cannot speak to thee! DE VARDES Put thou thine arms about my neck, Yvette, And lay thy head upon thy lover’s heart, And veil thine eyes with all thy shadowy hair. Now let them bind us with what cords they will, The spirit moves unbound, triumphant, free, Not through the Loire, but through a vaster stream! Oh, it is something dimly great to die! And then to die together, is’t not sweet? And not through illness, age, decrepitude, But the armed man is ready for new wars. And thou— YVETTE I hear the lark! A SOLDIER Come, come away! [YVETTE _and_ DE VARDES _move together towards the river, into the mist and the shadow of the trees_. A VOICE FROM THE RIVER _Vive la République!_ _CURTAIN_ [Illustration] The Riverside Press CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS U · S · A ------------------------------------------------------------------------ By Mary Johnston THE GODDESS OF REASON. _A Drama._ Tall 12mo, $2.00, _net_. Postage extra. AUDREY. With Illustrations in color. Crown 8vo, $1.50. PRISONERS OF HOPE. With Frontispiece. Crown 8vo, $1.50. TO HAVE AND TO HOLD. With 8 Illustrations by HOWARD PYLE, E. B. THOMPSON, A. W. BETTS, and EMLEN MCCONNELL. Crown 8vo, $1.50. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN & CO. BOSTON AND NEW YORK. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s note: 1. Moved advertisement from first page to the last page. 2. Silently corrected typographical errors. 3. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.