my suit?
I have your word if hers?

_Tresham._ My best of words
If hers encourage you. I trust it will.
Have you seen Lady Mildred, by the way?

_Mertoun._ I ... I ... our two demesnes, remember, touch;
I have been used to wander carelessly
After my stricken game: the heron roused
Deep in my woods, has trailed its broken wing
Thro' thicks and glades a mile in yours,--or else
Some eyass ill-reclaimed has taken flight
And lured me after her from tree to tree,
I marked not whither. I have come upon
The lady's wondrous beauty unaware,
And--and then ... I have seen her.

_Guendolen_ [_aside to AUSTIN_]. Note that mode
Of faltering out that, when a lady passed,
He, having eyes, did see her! You had said--
"On such a day I scanned her, head to foot;
Observed a red, where red should not have been,
Outside her elbow; but was pleased enough
Upon the whole." Let such irreverent talk
Be lessoned for the future!

_Tresham._ What's to say
May be said briefly. She has never known
A mother's care; I stand for father too.
Her beauty is not strange to you, it seems--
You cannot know the good and tender heart,
Its girl's trust and its woman's constancy,
How pure yet passionate, how calm yet kind,
How grave yet joyous, how reserved yet free
As light where friends are--how imbued with lore
The world most prizes, yet the simplest, yet
The ... one might know I talked of Mildred--thus
We brothers talk!

_Mertoun._ I thank you.

_Tresham._ In a word,
Control's not for this lady; but her wish
To please me outstrips in its subtlety
My power of being pleased: herself creates
The want she means to satisfy. My heart
Prefers your suit to her as 'twere its own.
Can I say more?

_Mertoun._ No more--thanks, thanks--no more!

_Tresham._ This matter then discussed....

_Mertoun._ --We'll waste no breath
On aught less precious. I'm beneath the roof
Which holds her: while I thought of that, my speech
To you would wander--as it must not do,
Since as you favor me I stand or fall.
I pray you suffer that I take my leave!

_Tresham._ With less regret 't is suffered, that again
We meet, I hope, so shortly.

_Mertoun._ We? again?--
Ah yes, forgive me--when shall ... you will crown
Your goodness by forthwith apprising me