SCENE II

ROCK, FIR-SAPLING, STRONG-ARM, HUMPBACK, ARROW-BEARER, a Palace official.

ARROW-BEARER

So this is the way you do your work? You fritter away in foolish chatter the few precious moments which are left.

HUMPBACK

The work will be finished, my Lord.

ARROW-BEARER

Will be finished! What, when I see the ground still strewn with petals and dead flower----and here, of all places, around the Pavilion of the Ladies-in-Waiting. [_Aside_] where blooms that living flower whom I adore.

HUMPBACK

No sooner have we put all straight than the spiteful wind shakes the branches and we have to begin all over again.

ARROW-BEARER

Remove them from the moss, at all events----Those faded flowers look like so many stains.