Responsibilities Part 15

It is a hard thing to be married to a man of learning that must always be having arguments.

[_She goes out._

WISE MAN

Strange that I should be blind to the great secret, And that so simple a man might write it out Upon a blade of gra.s.s or bit of rush With naught but berry juice, and laugh to himself Writing it out, because it was so simple.

[_Enter Bridget followed by the Fool._

FOOL

Give me something; give me a penny to buy bacon in the shops and nuts in the market, and strong drink for the time when the sun is weak.

BRIDGET

I have no pennies. (_To Wise Man_) Your pupils cannot find anybody to argue with you. There's n.o.body in the whole country with belief enough for a lover's oath. Can't you be quiet now, and not always wanting to have arguments? It must be terrible to have a mind like that.

WISE MAN

Then I am lost indeed.

BRIDGET

Leave me alone now, I have to make the bread for you and the children.

[_She goes into kitchen._

WISE MAN

Children, children!

BRIDGET

Your father wants you, run to him.

[_Children run in._

WISE MAN

Come to me, children. Do not be afraid.

I want to know if you believe in Heaven, G.o.d or the soul--no, do not tell me yet; You need not be afraid I shall be angry, Say what you please--so that it is your thought-- I wanted you to know before you spoke, That I shall not be angry.

FIRST CHILD

We have not forgotten, Father.

SECOND CHILD

Oh no, Father.

BOTH CHILDREN

(_As if repeating a lesson_) There is nothing we cannot see, nothing we cannot touch.

FIRST CHILD

Foolish people used to say that there was, but you have taught us better.

WISE MAN

Go to your mother, go--yet do not go.

What can she say? If I am dumb you are lost; And yet, because the sands are running out, I have but a moment to show it all in. Children, The sap would die out of the blades of gra.s.s Had they a doubt. They understand it all, Being the fingers of G.o.d's certainty, Yet can but make their sign into the air; But could they find their tongues they'd show it all; But what am I to say that am but one, When they are millions and they will not speak--

[_Children have run out._

But they are gone; what made them run away?

[_The Fool comes in with a dandelion._

Look at me, tell me if my face is changed, Is there a notch of the fiend's nail upon it Already? Is it terrible to sight?

Because the moment's near.

[_Going to gla.s.s._

I dare not look, I dare not know the moment when they come.

No, no, I dare not. (_Covers gla.s.s._) Will there be a footfall, Or will there be a sort of rending sound, Or else a cracking, as though an iron claw Had gripped the threshold stone?

[_Fool has begun to blow the dandelion._

What are you doing?

FOOL

Wait a minute--four--five--six--

WISE MAN

What are you doing that for?

FOOL

I am blowing the dandelion to find out what hour it is.

WISE MAN

You have heard everything, and that is why You'd find what hour it is--you'd find that out, That you may look upon a fleet of devils Dragging my soul away. You shall not stop, I will have no one here when they come in, I will have no one sitting there--no one-- And yet--and yet--there is something strange about you.

I half remember something. What is it?