ly]
Thine? I knew it not.
Thine? But it cannot be. He could not father
That little Jan,--that little shipwrecked Star.

VERONIKA
Oh, then you love him? You will give him back?

PIPER
The son of Kurt?

VERONIKA
No, not _his_ son! No, no.
He is all mine, all mine. Kurt's sons are straight,
And ruddy, like Kurt's wife of Hamelin there,
Who died before.

PIPER
And you were wed. . .

VERONIKA
So young,
It is all like some dream before the sunrise,
That left me but that little shipwrecked Star.

PIPER
Why did you marry Kurt the Councillor?

VERONIKA
[humbly]
He wanted me. Once I was beautiful.

PIPER
[wonderingly]
What, more than now?

VERONIKA
Mock if you will.

PIPER
I mock you;
O Woman, . . . you are very beautiful.

VERONIKA
I meant, with my poor self, to buy him house
And warmth, and softness for his little feet.
Oh, then I knew not,--when we sell our hearts,
We buy us nothing.

PIPER
Now you know.

VERONIKA
I know.
His dearest home it was, to keep my heart
Alone and beautiful, and clear and still;
And to keep all the gladness in my heart,
That bubbled from nowhere!--for him to drink;--
And to be houseless of all other things,
Even as the Lonely Man.
[The PIPER starts]
Where is the child?

PIPER
No; that I will not tell. Only thus much:
I love thy child. Trust me,--I love them, all.
They are the brightest miracle I know.
Wherever I go, I search the eyes of men
To find such clearness;--and it is not there.
Lies, greed and cruelty, and dreadful dark!
And all that makes Him sad these thousand years,
And keeps His forehead bleeding.--Ah, you know!

VERONIKA
Whom do you think on?

PIPER
Why, the Lonely Man,--
But now I have the children safe with me;
And men shall never teach them what men know;--
Those radiant things that have no wish at all
Save for what is all-beautiful!--the Rainbow,
The running Water, and the Moon, the Moon!
The only things worth having!

VERONIKA
--Oh, you will not
Give him to me?

PIPER
How give you yours again,
And not the others? What a life for him!
[She hides her face]
And Kurt the Syndic, left without his sons?
Bah, do not dream of it! What would Kurt do?--
And hearken here! Should any hunt me down,
Take care. Who then could bring the children back?

VERONIKA
_Jan_! _Jan_!

PIPER
He loves me. He is happy.

VERONIKA
[passionately ]
_No_!
Without me?--No.

PIPER
He has not even once
Called