John the Baptist: A Play Part 43

HEROD

[_Noticing her._] Get thee gone!

[_Gabalos and the servants withdraw to the background, where they let down the curtains which now shut in the hall._]

HEROD

What hast thou decided? Will it come to pa.s.s?

HERODIAS

Thy countenance beams. Thy eyes betray a badly concealed desire.

HEROD

[_Bewildered_] Of what desire dost thou speak?

HERODIAS

Do not prevaricate. I know thee, my friend. The poisonous weed which thou cultivatest with little sighs, and coverest up with thy crooked smiles, I know it!

HEROD

I vow, love, that I ask this only for the sake of the Roman. And how should I ever have conceived the idea had it not been for thy half-promises and suggestion of its possibilities? Thou knowest as well as I that we must offer the Roman something immense, something that may not have faded from his tired memory when he enters Caesar's presence.

HERODIAS

That is it. And thou thyself gainest thereby a dainty t.i.t-bit for thy lonely night-dreams! It will be nothing more than that. I'll see to it.

HEROD

I am simple of understanding. I cannot follow thee.

HERODIAS

Oh, yes; very simple is thy understanding. I know.

HEROD

Then it seems thou refusest?

HERODIAS

How could I refuse, when youth smiled and consented?

HEROD

Ah! And what reward wilt thou claim?

HERODIAS

Nothing.

HEROD

Thou art like those priests, dearest. What didst thou ever do for nothing? Hasten then, I pray, to name thy price!

HERODIAS

Farewell!

HEROD

[_Looks after her, shaking his head._]

HERODIAS

[_Turning round._] Before I forget it, just tell me, my friend, what art thou going to do with that Baptist?

HEROD

My Baptist is nothing to thee.

HERODIAS

The maids tell me he wanders about loose in the gardens.

HEROD

Let him; he will not hurt thee.

HERODIAS

I only asked, because I wish to know how I am to avoid him.

HEROD

I'll take care, love, that he doth not meet thee. But enough of the Baptist. Once more thy price, Herodias?

HERODIAS

Look at me! Here is a woman that no longer adorns her own body because thou now scornest it; she therefore adorns instead the body that came from hers. Here is a woman whose b.r.e.a.s.t.s have withered because her eyes have shed tears of blood. Therefore she will let the budding bosom, from which the veil has never yet fallen, be exposed to thine and thy guests' l.u.s.tful gaze. And for this sacrifice of unspeakable bitterness I ask nothing, for I am without wishes. One who can still hope shall ask. Salome shall ask.

HEROD

Salome ... I would rather it were so.

HERODIAS