at's more, 'twill soon be time for you to go;
You should not miss the favorable hour.
But you, old man, must come. For not alone,
Nor unobserved would I approach your children.

[_Goes into the house._]

ISAAC. Was that the King? Oh, woe!

GARCERAN. Proceed within.

ISAAC. If he should draw his sword, we all are doomed!

GARCERAN. Go in. And as for being afraid, 'tis not
For you nor for your daughter that I fear.

[_He pushes the hesitating_ ISAAC _into the garden house and follows
him._]

* * * * *

_Room in the pavilion. In the background to the left a door; in the
foreground to the right, another door. _RACHEL,_ with a plumed crown on
her head and gold embroidered mantle about her shoulders, is trying to
drag an armchair from the neighboring room, on the right._ ESTHER _has
come in through the principal entrance._

RACHEL. The armchair should stand here, here in the middle.

ESTHER. For Heaven's sake, O Rachel, pray look out;
Your madness else will bring us all to grief.

RACHEL. The King has given this vacant house to us;
As long as we inhabit it, it's ours.

[_They have dragged the chair to the centre._]

RACHEL (_looking at herself_).
Now don't you think my train becomes me well?
And when I nod, these feathers also nod.
I need just one thing more--I'll get it--wait!

[_Goes back through the side door._]

ESTHER. Oh, were we only far from here, at home!
My father, too, comes not, whom she drove off.

RACHEL (_comes back with an unframed picture_).

The royal image taken from its frame
I'll bear it with me.

ESTHER. Art thou mad again?
How often I have warned thee!

RACHEL. Did I heed?

ESTHER. By Heaven, no!

RACHEL. Nor will I heed you now.
The picture pleases me. Just see how fine!
I'll hang it in my room, close by my bed.
At morn and eventide I'll gaze at it,
And think such thoughts as one may think when one
Has shaken off the burden of one's clothes
And feels quite free from every onerous weight.
But lest they think that I have stolen it--
I who am