Part 69 (1/2)

'Till the end o' the daay An' the last load hoam, Load hoam.'

This bridge again! (Steps on the bridge.) How often have I stood With Eva here! The brook among its flowers!

Forget-me-not, meadowsweet, willow-herb.

I had some smattering of science then, Taught her the learned names, anatomized The flowers for her--and now I only wish This pool were deep enough, that I might plunge And lose myself for ever.

_Enter_ DAN SMITH (_singing_).

Gee oop! whoa! Gee oop! whoa!

Scizzars an' Pumpy was good uns to goa Thruf slush an' squad When roads was bad, But hallus ud stop at the Vine-an'-the-Hop, Fur boath on 'em knaw'd as well as mysen That beer be as good fur 'erses as men.

Gee oop! whoa! Gee oop! whoa!

Scizzars an' Pumpy was good uns to goa.

The beer's gotten oop into my 'ead. S'iver I mun git along back to the farm, fur she tell'd ma to taake the cart to Littlechester.

_Enter_ DORA.

Half an hour late! why are you loitering here? Away with you at once.

[_Exit_ DAN SMITH.

(_Seeing_ HAROLD _on bridge_.)

Some madman, is it, Gesticulating there upon the bridge? I am half afraid to pa.s.s.

HAROLD.

Sometimes I wonder, When man has surely learnt at last that all His old-world faith, the blossom of his youth, Has faded, falling fruitless--whether then All of us, all at once, may not be seized With some fierce pa.s.sion, not so much for Death As against Life! all, all, into the dark-- No more!--and science now could drug and balm us Back into nescience with as little pain As it is to fall asleep.

This beggarly life, This poor, flat, hedged-in field--no distance--this Hollow Pandora-box, With all the pleasures flown, not even Hope Left at the bottom!

Superst.i.tious fool, What brought me here? To see her grave? her ghost?

Her ghost is everyway about me here.

DORA (_coming forward_).

Allow me, sir, to pa.s.s you.

HAROLD.

Eva!

DORA.

Eva!

HAROLD.

What are you? Where do you come from?

DORA.

From the farm Here, close at hand.

HAROLD.

Are you--you are--that Dora, The sister. I have heard of you. The likeness Is very striking.

DORA.

You knew Eva, then?