th Spring!
Wilt go there with me, Helen? Now!

Hel. Now?

Poe. To-night!

Hel. To-night?

Poe. Why not? You say it as though night and day were not the
same to the soul--except that night is more beautiful! Why
not go?

Hel. I will tell you, love. (Drawing him back to the large
chair) Come, listen. (She sits in chair, and he kneels by
her, the moonlight covering them) Because I love you more
than you love beauty, God or night, and you must live for
me. And to live means--rest--sleep--

Poe. Do you love me so much? O, 'tis like cool waters falling
about me to hear you say it.

Hel. I will help you, Edgar. Already I feel my strength. Where
I may serve you I'll not meekly go, but go exultant. The
thorns and stones so harsh to human feet, I'll press as
they were buds, and leave my blood for kisses.

Poe. Oh, go on.

Hel. Yes, I've more to tell you. It is--that you must help me,
too. To-day--before you looked at me the first time--I was
dying. Ah, more,--I was about to set the seal of death on
my soul. My mother, who died at sea when I was born, gave
me a heritance with winds and waves and stars. But I was
nursed by hands through whose clay ran no immortal
streams. Cradled in convention, fed on sophistries, I wove
a shroud about my soul, and within that hardening
chrysalis it was dying away when you called it forth in
time to live--dear God, in time to live! Now you see how
much you are to me, Edgar. I must not lose you. But you
must be careful and patient with me, for my newly-bared
soul shrinks from the wonders so familiar to you, and I
may fly back to my chrysalis to escape the pain.

Poe. I am not afraid. Would a mother leave her babe? And I am a
child now, Helen. This strange, new rest you give me is
like a gentle birth. I have been old all my life. Now the
longing comes for a little of the childhood that was never
mine. The years fall from me, and I have no wish but to
lie on a mother's bosom and hear her voice prattling above
me.

Hel. (Archly, leaning over him as he sits at her feet) Does my
little boy want a story?

Poe. (Smiling) Abou