ife. There lies the road.
PEW. Ah, you was always a 'ard man, Cap'n, and a 'ard man to believe,
like Didymus the 'Ebrew prophet. But it's time for me to go, and I'll be
going. My service to you, Cap'n: and I kiss my 'and to that lovely
female. (_Singing_)--
"Time for us to go,
Time for us to go,
And when we'd clapped the hatches on,
'Twas time for us to go."
SCENE IV
KIT, ARETHUSA, GAUNT
ARETHUSA. Now, Kit?
KIT. Well, sir, and now?
GAUNT. I find you here in my house at this untimely and unseemly hour; I
find you there in company with one who, to my assured knowledge, should
long since have swung in the wind at Execution Dock. What brought you?
Why did you open my door while I slept to such a companion? Christopher
French, I have two treasures. One (_laying his hand on ARETHUSA'S
shoulder_) I know you covet: Christopher, is this your love?
KIT. Sir, I have been fooled and trapped. That man declared he knew you,
declared he could make you change your mind about our marriage. I was
drunk, sir, and I believed him: heaven knows I am sober now, and can see
my folly; but I believed him then, and followed him. He brought me here,
he told me your chest was full of gold that would make men of us for
life. At that I saw my fault, sir, and drew my cutlass; and he, in the
wink of an eye, roared out for help, leaped at my throat like a weasel,
and had me rolling on the floor. He was quick, and I, as I tell you,
sir, was off my balance.
GAUNT. Is this man, Pew, your enemy?
KIT. No, sir; I never saw him till to-night.
GAUNT. Then, if you must stand the justice of your country, come to the
proof with a better plea. What? lantern and cutlass yours; you the one
that knew the house; you the one that saw; you the one overtaken and
denounced; and you spin me a galley yarn like that? If that is all your
defence, you'll hang, sir, hang.
ARETHUSA. Ah!... Father, I give him up: I will never see him, never
speak to him, never think of him again; I take him from my heart; I give
myself wholly up to you and to my mother; I will obey you in every
point--O, not at a word merely--at a finger raised! I will do all this;
I will do anything--anything you bid me; I swear it in the face of
heaven. Only--Kit! I love him, father, I love him. Let him go.
GAUNT. Go?
ARETHUSA. You let the other. Open the door again for my sake, father--in
my mother's name--O, open the door and let him go.
KIT.
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