in the castle,_ ARKEL _and_ PELLEAS
_discovered._

ARKEL.

You see that everything retains you here just now and forbids you this
useless journey. We have concealed your father's condition from you
until now; but it is perhaps hopeless; and that alone should suffice
to stop you on the threshold. But there are so many other reasons....
And it is not in the day when our enemies awake, and when the people
are dying of hunger and murmur about us, that you have the right
to desert us. And why this journey? Marcellus is dead; and life has
graver duties than the visit to a tomb. You are weary, you say,
of your inactive life; but activity and duty are not found on the
highways. They must be waited for upon the threshold, and let in as
they go by; and they go by every day. You have never seen them? I
hardly see them any more myself; but I will teach you to see them, and
I will point them out to you the day when you would make them a sign.
Nevertheless, listen to me; if you believe it is from the depths of
your life this journey is exacted, I do not forbid your undertaking
it, for you must know better than I the events you must offer to your
being or your fate. I shall ask you only to wait until we know what
must take place ere long....

PELLEAS.

How long must I wait?

ARKEL.

A few weeks; perhaps a few days....

PELLEAS.

I will wait....

ACT THIRD

SCENE I.--_An apartment in the castle._ PELLEAS _and_ MELISANDE
_discovered_, MELISANDE _plies her distaff at the back of the room._

PELLEAS.

Yniold does not come back; where has he gone?

MELISANDE

He had heard something in the corridor; he has gone to see what it is.

PELLEAS.

Melisande....

MELISANDE

What is it?

PELLEAS.

... Can you see still to work there?...

MELISANDE

I work as well in the dark....

PELLEAS.

I think everybody is already asleep in the castle. Golaud does not
come back from the chase. It is late, nevertheless.... He no longer
suffers from his fall?...

MELISANDE.

He said he no longer suffered from it.

PELLEAS.

He must be more prudent; his body is no longer as supple as at twenty
years.... I see the stars through the window and the light of the moon
on the trees. It is late; he will not come back now. [_Knocking at the
door._] Who is there?... Come in!...

_Little_ YNIOLD _opens the door and enters the room._

It was you knocking so?... That is not the way to knock at doors. It
is as if a