To God above will make him feel for ours.
OSWALD I interrupt you?
IDONEA Think not so.
MARMADUKE Idonea,
That I should ever live to see this moment!
IDONEA Forgive me.--Oswald knows it all--he knows,
Each word of that unhappy letter fell
As a blood drop from my heart.
OSWALD 'Twas even so.
MARMADUKE I have much to say, but for whose ear?--not thine.
IDONEA Ill can I bear that look--Plead for me, Oswald!
You are my Father's Friend.
(To MARMADUKE.) Alas, you know not,
And never _can_ you know, how much he loved me.
Twice had he been to me a father, twice
Had given me breath, and was I not to be
His daughter, once his daughter? could I withstand
His pleading face, and feel his clasping arms,
And hear his prayer that I would not forsake him
In his old age--
[Hides her face.]
MARMADUKE Patience--Heaven grant me patience!--
She weeps, she weeps--_my_ brain shall burn for hours
Ere _I_ can shed a tear.
IDONEA I was a woman;
And, balancing the hopes that are the dearest
To womankind with duty to my Father,
I yielded up those precious hopes, which nought
On earth could else have wrested from me;--if erring,
Oh let me be forgiven!
MARMADUKE I _do_ forgive thee.
IDONEA But take me to your arms--this breast, alas!
It throbs, and you have a heart that does not feel it.
MARMADUKE (exultingly)
She is innocent. [He embraces her.]
OSWALD (aside)
Were I a Moralist,
I should make wondrous revolution here;
It were a quaint experiment to show
The beauty of truth-- [Addressing them.]
I see I interrupt you;
I shall have business with you, Marmaduke;
Follow me to the Hostel.
[Exit OSWALD.]
IDONEA Marmaduke,
This is a happy day. My Father soon
Shall sun himself before his native doors;
The
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