No More Learning

If so, I counsel you to spare
From idle passion hours so fair,
And me, henceforth, all further trouble.
I hope you are not avaricious!
I rub my hands, I scratch my head--
[_He places the casket in the press and locks it up again_. ]
(Quick! Time we sped! )--
That the dear creature may be led
And moulded by your will and wishes;
And you stand here as glum,
As one at the door of the auditorium,
As if before your eyes you saw
In bodily shape, with breathless awe,
Metaphysics and physics, grim and gray!
Away!
[_Exit_. ]

_Margaret [with a lamp_]. It seems so close, so sultry here.
[_She opens the window_. ]
Yet it isn't so very warm out there,
I feel--I know not how--oh dear!
I wish my mother 'ld come home, I declare!
I feel a shudder all over me crawl--
I'm a silly, timid thing, that's all!
[_She begins to sing, while undressing_.
]
There was a king in Thule,
To whom, when near her grave,
The mistress he loved so truly
A golden goblet gave.

He cherished it as a lover,
He drained it, every bout;
His eyes with tears ran over,
As oft as he drank thereout.

And when he found himself dying,
His towns and cities he told;
Naught else to his heir denying
Save only the goblet of gold.

His knights he straightway gathers
And in the midst sate he,
In the banquet hall of the fathers
In the castle over the sea.

There stood th' old knight of liquor,
And drank the last life-glow,
Then flung the holy beaker
Into the flood below.

He saw it plunging, drinking
And sinking in the roar,
His eyes in death were sinking,
He never drank one drop more.
[_She opens the press, to put away her clothes,
and discovers the casket_. ]

How in the world came this fine casket here?
I locked the press, I'm very clear.
I wonder what's inside! Dear me! it's very queer!
Perhaps 'twas brought here as a pawn,
In place of something mother lent.
Here is a little key hung on,
A single peep I shan't repent!
What's here? Good gracious!