ps thy friend is
less ill than he thinks....

PELLEAS

His letter is so sad you can see death between the lines.... He says
he knows the very day when death must come.... He tells me I can
arrive before it if I will, but that there is no more time to lose.
The journey is very long, and if I await Golaud's return, it will be
perhaps too late....

ARKEL.

Thou must wait a little while, nevertheless.... We do not know what
this return has in store for us. And besides, is not thy father here,
above us, more sick perhaps than thy friend.... Couldst thou choose
between the father and the friend?... [_Exit._

GENEVIEVE.

Have a care to keep the lamp lit from this evening, Pelleas....

[_Exeunt severally._

SCENE IV.--_Before the castle. Enter_ GENEVIEVE _and_ MELISANDE.

MELISANDE.

It is gloomy in the gardens. And what forests, what forests all about
the palaces!...

GENEVIEVE.

Yes; that astonished me too when I came hither; it astonishes
everybody. There are places where you never see the sun. But one gets
used to it so quickly.... It is long ago, it is long ago.... It is
nearly forty years that I have lived here.... Look toward the other
side, you will have the light of the sea....

MELISANDE.

I hear a noise below us....

GENEVIEVE.

Yes; it is some one coming up toward us.... Ah! it is Pelleas.... He
seems still tired from having waited so long for you....

MELISANDE.

He has not seen us.

GENEVIEVE.

I think he has seen us but does not know what he should do....
Pelleas, Pelleas, is it thou?...

_Enter_ PELLEAS

PELLEAS.

Yes!... I was coming toward the sea....

GENEVIEVE.

So were we; we were seeking the light. It is a little lighter here
than elsewhere; and yet the sea is gloomy.

PELLEAS

We shall have a storm to-night. There has been one every night for
some time, and yet it is so calm now.... One might embark unwittingly
and come back no more.

MELISANDE.

Something is leaving the port....

PELLEAS.

It must be a big ship.... The lights are very high, we shall see it in
a moment, when it enters the band of light....

GENEVIEVE.

I do not know whether we shall be able to see it ... there is still a
fog on the sea....

PELLEAS.

The fog seems to be rising slowly....

MELISANDE.

Yes; I see a little light down there, which I had not seen....

PELLEAS.

It is a lighthouse; there are others we cannot see yet.

MELISANDE.