Part 16 (1/2)

Hang Ovid's Art of Love! I'll woo my cousin!

[Goes out.]

SCENE II.--The Banqueting-room in the Earl of Rochdale's Mansion.

[Enter MASTER WALTER and JULIA.]

_Wal_. This is the banqueting-room. Thou seest as far It leaves the last behind, as that excels The former ones. All is proportion here And harmony! Observe! The ma.s.sy pillars May well look proud to bear the gilded dome.

You mark those full-length portraits? They're the heads, The stately heads, of his ancestral line.

Here o'er the feast they haply still preside!

Mark those medallions! Stand they forth or not In bold and fair relief? Is not this brave?

_Julia_. [Abstractedly.] It is.

_Wal_. It should be so. To cheer the blood That flows in n.o.ble veins is made the feast That gladdens here! You see this drapery?

'Tis richest velvet! Fringe and ta.s.sels, gold!

Is not this costly?

_Julia_. Yes.

_Wal_. And chaste, the while?

Both chaste and costly?

_Julia_. Yes.

_Wal_. Come hither! There's a mirror for you. See!

One sheet from floor to ceiling! Look into it, Salute its mistress! Dost not know her?

_Julia_. [Sighing deeply.] Yes.

_Wal_. And sighest thou to know her? Wait until To-morrow, when the banquet shall be spread In the fair hall; the guests--already bid, Around it; here, her lord; and there, herself; Presiding o'er the cheer that hails him bridegroom, And her the happy bride! Dost hear me?

_Julia_. [Sighing still more deeply.] Yes.

_Wal_. These are the day-rooms only, we have seen.

For public and domestic uses kept.

I'll show you now the lodging-rooms.

[Goes, then turns and observes JULIA standing perfectly abstracted.]

You're tired.

Let it be till after dinner, then. Yet one I'd like thee much to see--the bridal chamber.

[JULIA starts, crosses her hands upon her breast, and looks upwards.]

I see you're tired: yet it is worth the viewing, If only for the tapestry which shows The needle like the pencil glows with life;

[Brings down chairs--they sit.]