plays [37]
dear? Not to me.
DOROTHY. Dead to you - dead to all men.
FENWICK. Dorothy, I loved you as a boy. There is not a meadow
on Edenside but is dear to me for your sake, not a cottage but
recalls your goodness, not a rock nor a tree but brings back
something of the best and brightest youth man ever had. You were
my teacher and my queen; I walked with you, I talked with you, I
rode with you; I lived in your shadow; I saw with your eyes. You
will never know, dear Dorothy, what you were to the dull boy you
bore with; you will never know with what romance you filled my
life, with what devotion, with what tenderness and honour. At
night I lay awake and worshipped you; in my dreams I saw you, and
you loved me; and you remember, when we told each other stories -
you have not forgotten, dearest - that Princess Hawthorn that was
still the heroine of mine: who was she? I was not bold enough
to tell, but she was you! You, my virgin huntress, my Diana, my
queen.
DOROTHY. O silence, silence - pity!
FENWICK. No, dear; neither for your sake nor mine will I be
silenced. I have begun; I must go on and finish, and put fortune
to the touch. It was from you I learned honour, duty, piety, and
love. I am as you made me, and I exist but to reverence and
serve you. Why else have I come here, the length of England, my
heart burning higher every mile, my very horse a clog to me? why,
but to ask you for my wife? Dorothy, you will not deny me.
DOROTHY. You have not asked me about this broken trinket?
FENWICK. Why should I ask? I love you.
DOROTHY. Yet I must tell you. Sit down. (SHE PICKS UP THE
NECKLACE, AND STANDS LOOKING AT IT. THEN, BREAKING DOWN.) O
John, John, it's long since I left home.
FENWICK. Too long, dear love. The very trees will welcome you.
DOROTHY. Ay, John, but I no longer love you. The old Dorothy is
dead, God pardon her!
FENWICK. Dorothy, who is the man?
DOROTHY. O poor Dorothy! O poor dead Dorothy! John, you found
me breaking this: me, your Diana of the Fells, the Diana of your
old romance by Edenside. Diana - O what a name for me! Do you
see this trinket? It is a chapter in my life. A chapter, do I
say? my whole life, for there is none to follow. John, you must
bear with me, you must help me. I have that to tell - there is a
secret - I have a secret, John - O, for God's sake, understand.
That Diana you revered - O John, John, you must never speak of
love to me again.
FENWICK. What do you say? How dare you?
DOROTHY. John, it is the truth. Your Diana, even she, she whom
you so believed in, she who so believed in herself, came out into
the world only to be broken. I met, here at the Wells, a man -
why should I tell you his name? I met him, and I loved him. My
heart was all his own; yet he was not content with that: he must
intrigue to catch me, he must bribe my maid with this. (THROWS
THE NECKLACE ON THE TABLE.) Did he love me? Well, John, he said
he did; and be it so! He loved, he betrayed, and he has left me.
FENWICK. Betrayed?
DOROTHY. Ay, even so; I was betrayed. The fault was mine that I
forgot our innocent youth, and your honest love.
FENWICK. Dorothy, O Dorothy!
DOROTHY. Yours is the pain; but, O John, think it is for your
good. Think in England how many true maids may be waiting for
your love, how many that can bring you a whole heart, and be a
noble mother to your children, while your poor Diana, at the
first touch, has proved all frailty. Go, go and be happy, and
let me be patient. I have sinned.
FENWICK. By God, I'll have his blood.
DOROTHY. Stop! I love him. (BETWEEN FENWICK AND DOOR, C.)
FENWICK. What do I care? I loved you too. Little he thought of
that, little either of you thought of that. His blood - I'll
have his blood!
DOROTHY. You shall never know his name.
FENWICK. Know it? Do you think I cannot guess? Do you think I
had not heard he followed you. Do you think I had not suffered -
O suffered! George Austin is the man. Dear shall
DOROTHY. Dead to you - dead to all men.
FENWICK. Dorothy, I loved you as a boy. There is not a meadow
on Edenside but is dear to me for your sake, not a cottage but
recalls your goodness, not a rock nor a tree but brings back
something of the best and brightest youth man ever had. You were
my teacher and my queen; I walked with you, I talked with you, I
rode with you; I lived in your shadow; I saw with your eyes. You
will never know, dear Dorothy, what you were to the dull boy you
bore with; you will never know with what romance you filled my
life, with what devotion, with what tenderness and honour. At
night I lay awake and worshipped you; in my dreams I saw you, and
you loved me; and you remember, when we told each other stories -
you have not forgotten, dearest - that Princess Hawthorn that was
still the heroine of mine: who was she? I was not bold enough
to tell, but she was you! You, my virgin huntress, my Diana, my
queen.
DOROTHY. O silence, silence - pity!
FENWICK. No, dear; neither for your sake nor mine will I be
silenced. I have begun; I must go on and finish, and put fortune
to the touch. It was from you I learned honour, duty, piety, and
love. I am as you made me, and I exist but to reverence and
serve you. Why else have I come here, the length of England, my
heart burning higher every mile, my very horse a clog to me? why,
but to ask you for my wife? Dorothy, you will not deny me.
DOROTHY. You have not asked me about this broken trinket?
FENWICK. Why should I ask? I love you.
DOROTHY. Yet I must tell you. Sit down. (SHE PICKS UP THE
NECKLACE, AND STANDS LOOKING AT IT. THEN, BREAKING DOWN.) O
John, John, it's long since I left home.
FENWICK. Too long, dear love. The very trees will welcome you.
DOROTHY. Ay, John, but I no longer love you. The old Dorothy is
dead, God pardon her!
FENWICK. Dorothy, who is the man?
DOROTHY. O poor Dorothy! O poor dead Dorothy! John, you found
me breaking this: me, your Diana of the Fells, the Diana of your
old romance by Edenside. Diana - O what a name for me! Do you
see this trinket? It is a chapter in my life. A chapter, do I
say? my whole life, for there is none to follow. John, you must
bear with me, you must help me. I have that to tell - there is a
secret - I have a secret, John - O, for God's sake, understand.
That Diana you revered - O John, John, you must never speak of
love to me again.
FENWICK. What do you say? How dare you?
DOROTHY. John, it is the truth. Your Diana, even she, she whom
you so believed in, she who so believed in herself, came out into
the world only to be broken. I met, here at the Wells, a man -
why should I tell you his name? I met him, and I loved him. My
heart was all his own; yet he was not content with that: he must
intrigue to catch me, he must bribe my maid with this. (THROWS
THE NECKLACE ON THE TABLE.) Did he love me? Well, John, he said
he did; and be it so! He loved, he betrayed, and he has left me.
FENWICK. Betrayed?
DOROTHY. Ay, even so; I was betrayed. The fault was mine that I
forgot our innocent youth, and your honest love.
FENWICK. Dorothy, O Dorothy!
DOROTHY. Yours is the pain; but, O John, think it is for your
good. Think in England how many true maids may be waiting for
your love, how many that can bring you a whole heart, and be a
noble mother to your children, while your poor Diana, at the
first touch, has proved all frailty. Go, go and be happy, and
let me be patient. I have sinned.
FENWICK. By God, I'll have his blood.
DOROTHY. Stop! I love him. (BETWEEN FENWICK AND DOOR, C.)
FENWICK. What do I care? I loved you too. Little he thought of
that, little either of you thought of that. His blood - I'll
have his blood!
DOROTHY. You shall never know his name.
FENWICK. Know it? Do you think I cannot guess? Do you think I
had not heard he followed you. Do you think I had not suffered -
O suffered! George Austin is the man. Dear shall