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mine, and no doubt you tell yourself, that you can change.
Christopher, speaking under correction, I defy you! You ask me
for this child of many supplications, for this brand plucked from
the burning: I look at you; I read you through and through; and
I tell you - no! (STRIKING TABLE WITH HIS FIST.)
KIT. Captain Gaunt, if you mean that I am not worthy of her, I'm
the first to say so. But, if you'll excuse me, sir, I'm a young
man, and young men are no better'n they ought to be; it's known;
they're all like that; and what's their chance? To be married to
a girl like this! And would you refuse it to me? Why, sir, you
yourself, when you came courting, you were young and rough; and
yet I'll make bold to say that Mrs. Gaunt was a happy woman, and
the saving of yourself into the bargain. Well, now, Captain
Gaunt, will you deny another man, and that man a sailor, the very
salvation that you had yourself?
GAUNT. Salvation, Christopher French, is from above.
KIT. Well, sir, that is so; but there's means, too; and what
means so strong as the wife a man has to strive and toil for, and
that bears the punishment whenever he goes wrong? Now, sir, I've
spoke with your old shipmates in the Guinea trade. Hard as
nails, they said, and true as the compass: as rough as a slaver,
but as just as a judge. Well, sir, you hear me plead: I ask you
for my chance; don't you deny it to me.
GAUNT. You speak of me? In the true balances we both weigh
nothing. But two things I know: the depth of iniquity, how foul
it is; and the agony with which a man repents. Not until seven
devils were cast out of me did I awake; each rent me as it
passed. Ay, that was repentance. Christopher, Christopher, you
have sailed before the wind since first you weighed your anchor,
and now you think to sail upon a bowline? You do not know your
ship, young man: you will go to le'ward like a sheet of paper; I
tell you so that know - I tell you so that have tried, and
failed, and wrestled in the sweat of prayer, and at last, at
last, have tasted grace. But, meanwhile, no flesh and blood of
mine shall lie at the mercy of such a wretch as I was then, or as
you are this day. I could not own the deed before the face of
heaven if I sanctioned this unequal yoke. Arethusa, pluck off
that ring from off your finger. Christopher French, take it, and
go hence.
KIT. Arethusa, what do you say?
ARETHUSA. O Kit, you know my heart. But he is alone, and I am
his only comfort; and I owe all to him; and shall I not obey my
father? But, Kit, if you will let me, I will keep your ring.
Go, Kit; go, and prove to my father that he was mistaken; go and
win me. And O, Kit, if ever you should weary, come to me - no,
do not come! but send a word - and I shall know all, and you
shall have your ring. (GAUNT OPENS HIS BIBLE AND BEGINS TO
READ.)
KIT. Don't say that, don't say such things to me; I sink or swim
with you. (TO GAUNT.) Old man, you've struck me hard; give me a
good word to go with. Name your time; I'll stand the test. Give
me a spark of hope, and I'll fight through for it. Say just this
- 'Prove I was mistaken,' and by George, I'll prove it.
GAUNT (LOOKING UP). I make no such compacts. Go, and swear not
at all.
ARETHUSA. Go, Kit! I keep the ring.
SCENE IV
ARETHUSA, GAUNT
ARETHUSA. Father, what have we done that you should be so cruel?
GAUNT (LAYING DOWN BIBLE, AND RISING). Do you call me cruel?
You speak after the flesh. I have done you this day a service
that you will live to bless me for upon your knees.
ARETHUSA. He loves me, and I love him: you can never alter
that; do what you will, father, that can never change. I love
him, I believe in him, I will be true to him.
GAUNT. Arethusa, you are the sole thing death has left me on
this earth; and I must watch over your carnal happiness and your
eternal weal. You do not know what this implies to me. Your
mother - my Hester - tongue cannot tell, nor heart conceive the
pangs she suffered.