honest man, I
would bring him back with all his obsequious ways and deferential airs,
and let you see the man you call your Gov. melt for ever into him who
was your servant.

LADY MARY (shivering). You hurt me. You say these things, but you say
them like a king. To me it is the past that was not real.

CRICHTON (too grandly). A king! I sometimes feel--(For a moment the
yellow light gleams in his green eyes. We remember suddenly what
TREHERNE and ERNEST said about his regal look. He checks himself.) I
say it harshly, it is so hard to say, and all the time there is another
voice within me crying--(He stops.)

LADY MARY (trembling but not afraid). If it is the voice of nature--

CRICHTON (strongly). I know it to be the voice of nature.

LADY MARY (in a whisper). Then, if you want to say it very much, Gov.,
please say it to Polly Lasenby.

CRICHTON (again in the grip of an idea). A king! Polly, some people hold
that the soul but leaves one human tenement for another, and so lives on
through all the ages. I have occasionally thought of late that, in
some past existence, I may have been a king. It has all come to me so
naturally, not as if I had had to work it out, but-as-if-I-remembered.
'Or ever the knightly years were gone, With the old world to the grave,
I was a king in Babylon, And you were a Christian slave.' It may have
been; you hear me, it may have been.

LADY MARY (who is as one fascinated). It may have been.

CRICHTON. I am lord over all. They are but hewers of wood and drawers
of water for me. These shores are mine. Why should I hesitate; I have no
longer any doubt. I do believe I am doing the right thing. Dear Polly,
I have grown to love you; are you afraid to mate with me? (She rocks her
arms; no words will come from her.) 'I was a king in Babylon, And you
were a Christian slave.'

LADY MARY (bewitched). You are the most wonderful man I have ever known,
and I am not afraid. (He takes her to him reverently. Presently he is
seated, and she is at his feet looking up adoringly in his face. As the
tension relaxes she speaks with a smile.) I want you to tell me--every
woman likes to know--when was the first time you thought me nicer than
the others?

CRICHTON (who, like all big men, is simple). I think a year ago. We were
chasing goats on the Big Slopes, and you out-distanced us all; you were
the first of our party to run a goat down; I was proud of you that day.

LADY MARY (blushing with pleasure). Oh G