(_Exeunt_.)

Scene VII.

Sir William Sampson, Waitwell.

(_The drawing-room_.)

SIR WILLIAM.

What balm you have poured on my wounded heart with your words,
Waitwell! I live again, and the prospect of her return seems to carry
me as far back to my youth as her flight had brought me nearer to my
grave. She loves me still? What more do I wish! Go back to her soon,
Waitwell? I am impatient for the moment when I shall fold her again in
these arms, which I had stretched out so longingly to death! How
welcome would it have been to me in the moments of my grief! And how
terrible will it be to me in my new happiness! An old man, no doubt, is
to be blamed for drawing the bonds so tight again which still unite him
to the world. The final separation becomes the more painful. But God
who shows Himself so merciful to me now, will also help me to go
through this. Would He, I ask, grant me a mercy in order to let it
become ray ruin in the end? Would He give me back a daughter, that I
should have to murmur when He calls me from life? No, no! He gives her
back to me that in my last hour I may be anxious about myself alone.
Thanks to Thee, Eternal Father! How feeble is the gratitude of mortal
lips? But soon, soon I shall be able to thank Him more worthily in an
eternity devoted to Him alone!

WAITWELL.

How it delights me, Sir, to know you happy again before my death!
Believe me, I have suffered almost as much in your grief as you
yourself. Almost as much, for the grief of a father in such a case must
be inexpressible.

SIR WILLIAM.

Do not regard yourself as my servant any longer, my good Waitwell. You
have long deserved to enjoy a more seemly old age. I will give it you,
and you shall not be worse off than I am while I am still in this world.
I will abolish all difference between us; in yonder world, you well know,
it will be done. For this once be the old servant still, on whom I never
relied in vain. Go, and be sure to bring me her answer, as soon as it
is ready.

WAITWELL.

I go, Sir! But such an errand is not a service. It is a reward which
you grant me for my services. Yes, truly it is so! (_Exeunt on
different sides of the stage_.)

ACT IV.