The Works of Rudyard Kipling: One Volume EditionKipling, Rudyard
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The Works of Rudyard Kipling: One Volume Edition
Kipling, Rudyard
English fiction; English poetry; Short stories, English
HE. My angel! I didn't know what I was saying; and you changed so
quickly that I couldn't follow. I'll apologize in dust and ashes.
SHE. There'll be enough of those later on. Good night, Captain
Congleton. Going to the singing-quadrilles already? What dances am I
giving you next week? No! You must have written them down wrong. Five
and Seven, I said. If you've made a mistake, I certainly don't intend to
suffer for it. You must alter your programme.
HE. I thought you told me that you had not been going out much this
season?
SHE. Quite true, but when I do I dance with Captain Congleton. He dances
very nicely.
HE. And sit out with him, I suppose?
SHE. Yes. Have you any objection? Shall I stand under the chandelier in
future?
HE. What does he talk to you about?
SHE. What do men talk about when they sit out?
Ha. Ugh! Don't! Well now I'm up, you must dispense with the fascinating
Congleton for a while. I don't like him.
SHE. (after a pause). Do you know what you have said?
HE. 'Can't say that I do exactly. I'm not in the best of tempers.
SHE. So I see... and feel. My true and faithful lover, where is your
“eternal constancy,” “unalterable trust,” and “reverent devotion”? I
remember those phrases; you seem to have forgotten them. I mention a
man's name--
HE. A good deal more than that.
SHE. Well, speak to him about a dance--perhaps the last dance that I
shall ever dance in my life before I... before I go away; and you at once
distrust and insult me.
HE. I never said a word.
SHE. How much did you imply? Guy, is this amount of confidence to be our
stock to start the new life on?
HE. No, of course not. I didn't mean that. On my word of honor, I
didn't. Let it pass, dear. Please let it pass.
SHE. This once--yes--and a second time, and again and again, all through
the years when I shall be unable to resent it. You want too much, my
Lancelot, and... you know too much.
HE. How do you mean?
SHE. That is a part of the punishment. There cannot be perfect trust
between us.
HE. In Heaven's name, why not?
SHE. Hush! The Other Place is quite enough. Ask yourself.
HE. I don't follow.
SHE. You trust me so implicitly that when I look at another man--Never
mind, Guy. Have you ever made love to a girl--a good girl?
HE. Something of the sort. Centuries ago--in the Dark Ages, before I
ever met you, dear.
SHE. Tell me what you said to her.
HE. What does a man say to a girl? I've forgotten.
SHE. I remember. He tells her that he trusts her and worships the ground
she walks on, and that he'll love and honor and protect her till her
dying day; and so she marries in that belief. At least, I speak of one
girl who was not protected.
HE. Well, and then?
SHE. And then, Guy, and then, that girl needs ten times the love and
trust and honor--yes, honor--that was enough when she was only a mere
wife if--if--the other life she chooses to lead is to be made even
bearable. Do you understand?
HE. Even bearable! It'll he Paradise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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