Washington Square Plays Part 22

HELENA. It was a profanation of the most holy.

PARIS. The holiest awaits you, Helena! Our love will lighten the Plutonian realms.

HELENA. Menelaus never spoke to me like that.

PARIS. 'Tis but the first whisper of my adoration.

HELENA. I can't face him every morning at breakfast for the rest of my life. That's even more than a Queen can bear.

PARIS. I am waiting to release you.

HELENA. I've stood it for seven years.

PARIS. I've been coming to you since the beginning of time.

HELENA. There is something urging me to go with you, something I do not understand.

PARIS. Quick! There is but a moment left us. [He takes her rapturously in his arms. There is a pa.s.sionate embrace in the midst of which TSUMU enters.]

TSUMU. The chiropodist has come.

HELENA. Bring me my outer garment and my purse.

[TSUMU exits, her eyes wide on PARIS.]

PARIS. Helena! Helena!

[HELENA looks about her and takes up the papyrus that MENELAUS has flung to the floor.]

HELENA. A last word to the King. [She looks at the papyrus.] No, this won't do; I shall have to take this with me.

PARIS. What is it?

HELENA. Maskanda's discourse on the hip.

[A trumpet sounds below in the courtyard.]

PARIS [excitedly]. Leave it--or your hip may cost me my head. We haven't a minute to spare. Hurry! Hurry!

[HELENA takes up an eyebrow pencil and writes on the back of the papyrus. She looks for a place to put it and seeing the shield she smears it with some of the ointment and sticks the papyrus to it.]

PARIS [watching her in ecstasy]. You are the fairest of all fair women and your name will blaze as a symbol throughout eternity. [TSUMU enters with the purse and the QUEEN'S outer robe.]

HELENA [tossing the purse to PARIS]. Here, we may need this.

PARIS [throwing it back to TSUMU]. This for your silence, daughter of darkness. A prince has no heed of purses.

TSUMU [looking at him]. A prince!

HELENA [gloriously]. My prince of poetry. My deliverer!

PARIS [divinely]. My queen of love!

[They go out, TSUMU looking after them in speechless amazement. Suddenly she sees the papyrus on the shield, runs over and reads it and then rushes to the door of the library.]

TSUMU [calling]. a.n.a.lytikos. [She hides the purse in her bosom.

a.n.a.lYTIKOS enters, scroll in hand.]

a.n.a.lYTIKOS. Has the Queen summoned me?

TSUMU [mysteriously]. A terrible thing has happened.

a.n.a.lYTIKOS. What's the matter?

TSUMU. Where's the King?

a.n.a.lYTIKOS. In the library.

TSUMU. I have news more precious than the gold of Midas.

a.n.a.lYTIKOS [giving her a purse]. Well! What is it?

TSUMU [speaking very dramatically and watching the effect of her words].

The Queen has deserted Menelaus.

a.n.a.lYTIKOS [receiving the shock philosophically]. Swift are the ways of Nature. The G.o.ds have smiled upon him.

TSUMU. The G.o.ds have forsaken the King to smile upon a prince.

a.n.a.lYTIKOS. What?

TSUMU. He was a prince.

a.n.a.lYTIKOS [apprehensively]. Why do you say that?

TSUMU [clutching her bosom]. I have a good reason to know. [There is a sound of voices below in the courtyard. MENELAUS rushes in expectantly.

TSUMU falls prostrate before him.] Oh, King, in thy bottomless agony blame not a blameless negress. The Queen has fled!

MENELAUS [in his delight forgetting himself and flinging her a purse].

Is it true?

TSUMU. Woe! Woe is me!

MENELAUS [storming]. Out of my sight, you eyeless Argus!

a.n.a.lYTIKOS [to TSUMU]. Quick, send a messenger. Find out who he was.

[TSUMU sticks the third purse in her bosom and runs out.]