ng to be happy....

ABLAMORE.

Come hither, Astolaine. It is not so that you were wont to speak in
the old days to your father. You wait there, on the threshold of a
door hardly ajar, as if you were ready to flee; and with your hand
upon the key, as if you would close from me forever the secret of your
heart. You know quite well I have not understood what you have just
said, and that words have no sense when souls are not within reach
of each other. Draw nearer still, and speak no more to me, [ASTOLAINE
_approaches slowly_.] There is a moment when souls touch each
other, and know all without need that one should move the lips. Draw
nearer.... They do not reach each other yet, and their radiance is
so slight about us!... [ASTOLAINE _stops_.] Thou darest not?--Thou
knowest too how far one can go?--It is I who must.... [_He approaches
Astolaine with slow step, then stops and looks long at her_.] I see
thee, Astolaine....

ASTOLAINE.

Father!... [_She sobs as she kisses the old man_.]

ABLAMORE.

You see well it was useless....

SCENE II.--_A chamber in the palace_.

_Enter_ ALLADINE _and_ PALOMIDES.

PALOMIDES.

All will be ready to-morrow. We cannot wait longer. He prowls like
a madman through the corridors of the palace; I met him even now.
He looked at me without a word. I passed; and as I turned, I saw him
slyly laugh, shaking his keys. When he perceived that I was looking
at him, he smiled at me, making signs of friendship. He must have
some secret project, and we are in the hands of a master whose reason
begins to totter.... To-morrow we shall be far away.... Yonder there
are wonderful countries that resemble thine.... Astolaine has already
provided for our flight and for my sisters'....

ALLADINE.

What has she said?

PALOMIDES.

Nothing, nothing.... You will see everything about my father's
castle,--after days of sea and days of forests--you will see lakes and
mountains ... not like these, under a sky that looks like the vault of
a cave, with black trees that the storms destroy ... but a sky beneath
which there is nothing more to fear,--forests that are always awake,
flowers that do not close....

ALLADINE.

She wept?

PALOMIDES.

What are you asking?... There is something there of which we have no
right to speak, do you understand?... There is a life there that does
not belong to our poor life, and which love has no right to approach
except in silence.... We are here, like two b