e at each street corner. To Christian):
Call her!

CHRISTIAN:
Roxane!

CYRANO (picking up stones and throwing them at the window):
Some pebbles! wait awhile!

ROXANE (half-opening the casement):
Who calls me?

CHRISTIAN:
I!

ROXANE:
Who's that?

CHRISTIAN:
Christian!

ROXANE (disdainfully):
Oh! you?

CHRISTIAN:
I would speak with you.

CYRANO (under the balcony--to Christian):
Good. Speak soft and low.

ROXANE:
No, you speak stupidly!

CHRISTIAN:
Oh, pity me!

ROXANE:
No! you love me no more!

CHRISTIAN (prompted by Cyrano):
You say--Great Heaven!
I love no more?--when--I--love more and more!

ROXANE (who was about to shut the casement, pausing):
Hold! 'tis a trifle better! ay, a trifle!

CHRISTIAN (same play):
Love grew apace, rocked by the anxious beating. . .
Of this poor heart, which the cruel wanton boy. . .
Took for a cradle!

ROXANE (coming out on to the balcony):
That is better! But
An if you deem that Cupid be so cruel
You should have stifled baby-love in's cradle!

CHRISTIAN (same play):
Ah, Madame, I assayed, but all in vain
This. . .new-born babe is a young. . .Hercules!

ROXANE:
Still better!

CHRISTIAN (same play):
Thus he strangled in my heart
The. . .serpents twain, of. . .Pride. . .and Doubt!

ROXANE (leaning over the balcony):
Well said!
--But why so faltering? Has mental palsy
Seized on your faculty imaginative?

CYRANO (drawing Christian under the balcony, and slipping into his place):
Give place! This waxes critical!. . .

ROXANE:
To-day. . .
Your words are hesitating.

CYRANO (imitating Christian--in a whisper):
Night has come. . .
In the dusk they grope their way to find your ear.

ROXANE:
But my words find no such impediment.

CYRANO:
They find their way at once? Small wonder that!
For 'tis within my heart they find their home;
Bethink how large my heart, how small your ear!
And,--from fair heights descending, words fall fast,
But mine must mount, Madame, and that takes time!

ROXANE:
Meseems that your last words have learned to climb.

CYRANO:
With practice such gymnastic grows less hard!

ROXANE:
In truth, I seem to speak from distant heights!

CYRANO:
True, far above; at such a height 'twere death
If a hard word from you fell on my heart.

ROXANE (moving):
I will come down. . .

CYRANO (hastily):
No!

ROXANE (showing hi