Come quickly back.

[_Exit MARIAN. ROBIN paces thoughtfully across the glade._

_QUEEN ELINOR steals out of her hiding place and
stands before him._]

You here!

ELINOR

Robin, can you
Believe that girl? Am I so treacherous?

ROBIN

It seems you have heard whate'er I had to say.

ELINOR

Surely you cannot quite forget those days
When you were kind to me. Do you remember
The sunset through that oriel?

ROBIN

Ay, a god
Grinning thro' a horse-collar at a pitiful page,
Dazed with the first red gleam of what he thought
Life, as the trouveres find it! I am ashamed,
Remembering how your quick tears blinded me!

ELINOR

Ashamed! You--you--that in my bitter grief
When Rosamund--

ROBIN

I know! I thought your woes,
Those tawdry relics of your treacheries,
Wrongs quite unparalleled. I would have fought
Roland himself to prove you spotless then.

ELINOR

Oh, you speak thus to me! Robin, beware!
I have come to you, I have trampled on my pride,
Set all on this one cast! If you should now
Reject me, humble me to the dust before
That girl, beware! I never forget, I warn you;
I never forgive.

ROBIN

Are you so proud of that?

ELINOR

Ah, well, forgive me, Robin. I'll save you yet
From all these troubles of your outlawry!
Trust me--for I can wind my poor Prince John
Around my little finger. Who knows--with me
To help you--there are but my two sons' lives
That greatly hinder it--why, yourself might reign
Upon the throne of England.

ROBIN

Are you so wrapped
In treacheries, helplessly false, even to yourself,
That now you do not know falsehood from truth,
Darkness from light?

ELINOR

O Robin, I was true
At least to you. If I were false to others,
At least I--

ROBIN

No--not that--that sickening plea
Of truth in treachery. Treachery cannot live
With truth. The soul wherein they are wedded dies
Of leprosy.

ELINOR

[_Coming closer to him._]

Have you no pity, Robin,
No kinder word than this for the poor creature
Th