The Lady of Loyalty House Part 29

"Yes, indeed. Let us go into my paradise."

She looked into the garden and came back with a shiver.

"Ah, no, it is raining. It rained when the King raised his standard at Nottingham. Well, well, we can read here."

Evander was turning the leaves.

"What shall we read? Comedy, history, tragedy?"

Brilliana was for the solemn mask.

"Let it be tragedy. I have laughed so much this morning that my mind turns to melancholy."

Evander looked up at her with his finger on a page.

"Shall we read 'Romeo and Juliet'?"

"I know that play by root of heart," Brilliana said.

"Truly, so do I," said Evander.

Brilliana was silent, pensive, a finger on her lip, considering some project. Then she said, doubtfully:

"You spoke the other day of women players, a thing that seemed to me incredible. Shall we see how it would seem here for us two? Let us while away a wet morning by playing a stage play."

Evander's heart leaped.

"With you for the sweet scene in the garden," he cried.

In a moment Brilliana was busy in the setting of her scene. She pulled round a heavy, high-backed chair and leaped into it, leaning over the back and looking up as if the painted ceiling glowed with the stars of an Italian night. Then the words flowed from her, the wonderful words:

"'O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?

Deny thy father and refuse thy name: Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet.'"

Evander said his line a little stiffly; he was awkward, being a man.

"'Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?'"

Brilliana flowed on:

"'Tis but thy name that is my enemy: Thou art thyself though not a Montague.

What's Montague? It is nor hand nor foot, Nor arm nor face. O be some other name Belonging to a man.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, Retain that dear perfection which he owes, Without that t.i.tle.--Romeo, doff thy name; And for thy name which is no part of thee, Take all myself.'"

Evander put heart now into his part as he moved towards her.

"'I take thee at thy word.

Call me but love, and I'll be new baptiz'd; Henceforth I never will be Romeo.'"

Brilliana affected to peer into the darkness of a green garden.

"'What man art thou, that thus bescreened in night, So stumblest on my counsel?'"

Evander answered, very earnest now:

"'By a name I know not how to tell thee who I am: My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself, Because it is an enemy to thee: Had I it written, I would tear the word.'"

Brilliana's voice faltered as she took up the tale.

"'My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words Of thy tongue's uttering, yet I know the sound.

Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?'"

Evander was quite near now to the chair and the fair maid perched upon it, and the words trembled on his lips.

"'Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike.'"

He put out his hands and caught hers for a moment. Then she drew them free and jumped down. She went to the open s.p.a.ce and looked into the wet garden with a hand to her head and a hand to her heart. Evander followed her.

"Ah, me," she said, "love was a heady G.o.d in Verona. Here in England he could not solder such hostilities."

Evander answered her pa.s.sionately.

"Here in England love is a more glorious G.o.d yet, for he can fling a Puritan soldier at the feet of a Cavalier lady."

Brilliana still stared straight before her.

"We have drifted from the land of shadows."

Evander spoke from his heart.

"We have drifted into reality. I love you. I cannot change my faith for that, I cannot change my flag. But believe this, remember this, that in the Parliament's army one Puritan is as true your lover as all the Cavaliers who worship you."

Brilliana turned and looked at him now, very steadfastly:

"You do not speak by the book."

"No, only by my heart," Evander answered, simply. "I tell you my soul's truth. I love you, I shall love you to the end, whether the end come in a battle on a windy heath, or in an oblong box of a bed."

Brilliana's eyes were bright and kind.

"You do not know what you are saying. I do not know what you are saying. The world would have to change before I could listen with patience to words of love on the lips of a rebel."

Evander answered her bravely.

"I know that. I did not hope; but I had to set my soul free. To the end of ends I shall cherish you, live for you, die for you: very lonely, well content."

Brilliana turned away. The heart of Juliet within her was big almost to breaking.

"The rain ceases; I must go into the air."