SCENE III--A GARDEN OVERGROWN WITH ROSES.

_Enter Virginia and Icilius. Twilight deepening into night._

_Icilius._ This is an eve of witchery, an hour Alluring, swelled with love and weighted down With dreams.

_Virg._ A time when all our best ideals Are perfected. Reality is dead, Deep-buried in her grave, and Heaven and Earth, Swayed by the wand of sweet Imagination, Languish beneath the velvet robes of Night.

_Icilius_. And 'tis a night more fair than when Dian Cast lustre on the young, unwitting face Of that deep-slumbering boy, Endymion.

_Virg._ Oh! happy boy! a goddess kissed thy hair, Mused o'er thy brows, and sighed above thy lips.

_Icilius_. Thrice happy man, who treasures human love, And humbly may accept that precious gift, A mortal maiden's heart, nor sigh for more. There is no more, nor anything so fair, As such a dear possession. Happy he, Who can, though but one instant, close and warm, Hold woman's form, or kiss the starry light Into her eyes, the blood into her cheeks! And such a man, Virginia, am I.

_Virg._ (_shyly_). Not once in life, dear Love, but many times.

_Icilius._ Not once, not twice, not thrice, but many times.

_Virg._ What might lies in the warmth of kisses given! Like wine they strengthen, quicken, stimulate, Like flame they warm, like moonlight satisfy. Like stars uplift above the common world. Dear Love, I am a weak and fearful child And need my wine, my flame, my moon and stars, To fit me for the years that lie ahead.

_Icilius._ Thou lookest pale, in need of stimulant--

[_Kisses her._

Once more, sweetheart! Nay, wouldst thou draw away?

_Virg._ Not so. Mine ears deceived me, hearing sounds Of stealthy listeners.

_Icilius._ Virginia, Rest here upon this bed of roses. They Are "red with anguish for Adonis' death," That mortal love of Venus. Dear, recline, And let thy tresses, darker than the night, In the breeze fluttering, caress my cheek, Breathing thy love for me.

_Virg._ Icilius, 'Twas only yestereve I wandered here. The sun was casting forth his fading beams In final efforts most supreme; my thoughts Were full of peace and thee. And in the light Shed by the homing sun--the purple, red, And gold--I dreamed fair dreams, imagined visions. Methought I saw the coming years of bliss, Deepened with sorrow, lined with simple care; The sorrow of a mortal, and the care Of wife and mother. Then, at once, arose Longings that I might always worthy be, As was Eurydice of Orpheus. Never to falter, howsoe'er I feared, Turn not, stay not, fail not; a woman in My services and steadfast faith, as well As my most passionate love. My thoughts are grave; Perchance they do accord not with thy mood?

_Icilius._ Not so, thou spirit of sweet harmony, My life and soul, my one bright guiding star. Thy lover is a rude and careless man, A Roman tribune, weighted with affairs, Stern to my fellows, tender but to thee. Yet when I look on thy beloved form And perfect face, my sins are swept away, As is the unclean wrack, upon the shore, Swept by the ocean. Ay! and in its place Are left pure pearls and shells and wonders such As only dwell where man can never go-- Thy thoughts, Virginia, pure as virgin snow.

_Virg._ Last night I lay awake amid the dark, Hearing the music of the fount without My window; sharply, trebly sweet it broke The heavy, voiceless gloom of slumbering Nature and sleeping men. Awake, I dreamed Of all the bliss the gentle gods have placed Within my hold. Then, like a swelling sea, High in my bosom rose the newborn love. I thought of how it grew, so shy, so slow, At first like faltering breeze that lightly stirs And lifts the tiny feather o'er the heart Of nesting bird, then gaming courage, grows Into a gentle wind until the soul Within leaps up, and mighty, strong, and free, Soars on celestial wings above the raving sea.

[_A silence falls, during which a light begins to break in the eastern sky._

_Icilius._ We have outsighed the day; the rising moon Her benediction smiles upon this spot, Where breathes and hopes and loves Virginia.

_Virg._ She signals faintly, from the brightening east, To thee, my hero and my love.

_Icilius._ One kiss, One kiss in honor of fair Cynthia. May blessings come to thee with every ray From yonder orb which rises o'er the hills Of Rome and lights a glory in thy hair. Elusive soul! this moment dost thou seem A chaste, pale spirit of the lonely moon, A white Diana of nocturnal glades, Yet in the magic of the ardent sun I've seen thee flame into an Aphrodite, A glowing type of passion and desire. My love, my full and perfected ideal, My Helen and my delicate AEnone. My nymph and my incomparable queen In one. Come closer to my arms, beloved! I would not lose in any sense or thought A moment spent with thee, Virginia.

_Virg._ (_in his arms_). Closer, ay, closer, as the days go by, Deeper and deeper, stronger and more strong, Each in the other till we are not two, A man and maid, but one, but one. Oh! say How close I am to thee, Icilius?

_Icilius._ As close as vein to leaf, or leaf to stem; As close as is the rose-flush in the heart Of ocean's shell unto the shell itself; Close as the star is to its atmosphere; Wedded as day and night, no break, no void Between, but only faintest change and lights, Born of a higher world, a purer sphere, Heaven-conceived, begotten of the sky.

[_The light visibly brightens, shining down upon the two. After a silence they stir and slowly walk apart, watching the sky. Icilius presently rejoins Virginia._

Love, thou art weary. Come within and sleep.

_Virg._ Nay, I could never weary in thy sight. Have I not called thy kisses and embrace My wine, my flame, my moonlight and my stars? I am not weary. But I'll come within-- The morrow brings a fresh Elysium.

_Icilius._ Oh! but the night is fair; behold each rose, How tenderly preserves and cups its dew, Barely awakened, lifting up its head And smiling at the moon. One kiss before We go within. And now, farewell, thou rose; Farewell, thou garden of nocturnal dreams And noon-day musings. Come, Virginia, Let us within.