shame, and the despair--with them
Round me aghast as round some cursed fount
That should spirt water, and spouts blood. I'll not
...Henry, you do not wish that I should draw
This vengeance down? I'll not affect a grace
That's gone from me--gone once, and gone for ever!

MERTOUN. Mildred, my honour is your own. I'll share
Disgrace I cannot suffer by myself.
A word informs your brother I retract
This morning's offer; time will yet bring forth
Some better way of saving both of us.

MILDRED. I'll meet their faces, Henry!

MERTOUN. When? to-morrow!
Get done with it!

MILDRED. Oh, Henry, not to-morrow!
Next day! I never shall prepare my words
And looks and gestures sooner.--How you must
Despise me!

MERTOUN. Mildred, break it if you choose,
A heart the love of you uplifted--still
Uplifts, thro' this protracted agony,
To heaven! but Mildred, answer me,--first pace
The chamber with me--once again--now, say
Calmly the part, the... what it is of me
You see contempt (for you did say contempt)
--Contempt for you in! I would pluck it off
And cast it from me!--but no--no, you'll not
Repeat that?--will you, Mildred, repeat that?

MILDRED. Dear Henry!

MERTOUN. I was scarce a boy--e'en now
What am I more? And you were infantine
When first I met you; why, your hair fell loose
On either side! My fool's-cheek reddens now
Only in the recalling how it burned
That morn to see the shape of many a dream
--You know we boys are prodigal of charms
To her we dream of--I had heard of one,
Had dreamed of her, and I was close to her,
Might speak to her, might live and die her own,
Who knew? I spoke. Oh, Mildred, feel you not
That now, while I remember every glance
Of yours, each word of yours, with power to test
And weigh them in the diamond scales of pride,
Resolved the treasure of a first and last
Heart's love shall have been bartered at its worth,
--That now I think upon your purity
And utter ignorance of guilt--your own
Or other's guilt--the girlish undisguised
Delight at a strange novel prize--(I talk
A silly language, but interpret, you!)
If I, with fancy at its full, and reason
Scarce in its germ, enjo