BEA. Ay, for today you have. But not for long. They say a bride forgets her friends,--she cleaves so To her new lord. It cannot but be true. You will be gone from me. There will be much To drive me from your mind. BIA. Shall I forget, then, When I am old, I ever was a child? I tell you I shall never think of you Throughout my life, without such tenderness As breaks the heart,--and I shall think of you Whenever I am most happy, whenever I am Most sad, whenever I see a beautiful thing. You are a burning lamp to me, a flame The wind cannot blow out, and I shall hold you High in my hand against whatever darkness. BEA. You are to me a silver bell in a tower. And when it rings I know I am near home. Scene 3 [A room in the palace. Mario alone. Enter Beatrice.] BEA. Mario! I have a message for you!--Nay, You need not hang your head and shun me, Mario, Because you loved me once a little and now Love somebody else much more. The going of love Is no less honest than the coming of it. It is a human thing. MAR. Oh, Beatrice! What can I say to you? BEA. Nay, but indeed. Say nothing. All is said. I need no words To tell me you have been troubled in your heart, Thinking of me. MAR. What can I say to you! BEA. I tell you, my dear friend, you must forget This thing that makes you sad. I have forgotten, In seeing her so happy, that ever I wished For happiness myself. Indeed, indeed, I am much happier in her happiness Than if it were my own; 'tis doubly dear, I feel it in myself, yet all the time I know it to be hers, and am twice glad. MAR. I could be on my knees to you a lifetime, Nor pay you half the homage is your due. BEA. Pay me no homage, Mario,--but if it be I have your friendship, I shall treasure it. MAR. That you will have always. BEA. Then you will promise me Never to let her know. I never told her How it was with us, or that I cherished you More than another. It was on my tongue to tell her The moment she returned, but she had seen you Already on the bridge as she went by, And had leaned out to look at you, it seems, And you were looking at her,--and the first words She said, after she kissed me, were, "Oh, sister, I have looked at last by daylight on the man I see in my dreams!" MAR. [Tenderly.] Did she say that? BEA. [Drily.] Ay, that Was what she said.--By which I knew, you see, My dream was over,--it could not but be you. So that I said no word, but my quick blood Went suddenly quiet in my veins, and I felt Years older than Bianca. I drew her head Down to my shoulder, that she might not see my face, And she spoke on, and on. You must not tell her, Even when you both are old, and there is nothing To do but to remember. She would be withered With pity for me. She holds me very dear.