No More Learning

FORGAEL.

I have deceived you;
I have deceived you utterly.

DECTORA.

How can that be?
Is it that though your eyes are full of love
Some other woman has a claim on you,
And I've but half?

FORGAEL.

Oh, no!

DECTORA.

And if there is,
If there be half a hundred more, what matter?
I'll never give another thought to it;
No, no, nor half a thought; but do not speak.
Women are hard and proud and stubborn-hearted,
Their heads being turned with praise and flattery;
And that is why their lovers are afraid
To tell them a plain story.

FORGAEL.

That's not the story;
But I have done so great a wrong against you,
There is no measure that it would not burst.
I will confess it all.

DECTORA.
What do I care,
Now that my body has begun to dream,
And you have grown to be a burning sod
In the imagination and intellect?
If something that's most fabulous were true--
If you had taken me by magic spells,
And killed a lover or husband at my feet--
I would not let you speak, for I would know
That it was yesterday and not to-day
I loved him; I would cover up my ears,
As I am doing now. [_A pause. _] Why do you weep?

FORGAEL.

I weep because I've nothing for your eyes
But desolate waters and a battered ship.

DECTORA.

O, why do you not lift your eyes to mine?

FORGAEL.

I weep--I weep because bare night's above,
And not a roof of ivory and gold.

DECTORA.

I would grow jealous of the ivory roof,
And strike the golden pillars with my hands.
I would that there was nothing in the world
But my beloved--that night and day had perished,
And all that is and all that is to be,
All that is not the meeting of our lips.

FORGAEL.

I too, I too. Why do you look away?