Let me read your love in your eyes! Let me find it on your lips! (kisses her.)
MISS M. (starts angrily to L. C.). Oh, the shame of it! the shame of it! (sobbing.)
LEY. (surprised). The shame of it! What do you mean?
MISS M. Don't come near me! Advance one step, and I will call my servants (hand extended towards bell on table) and have you thrust from the house. Have you no thought of my weakness? Is nothing sacred to you? (indignantly) How he looks at me! one would think I had insulted him! Ah, I deserve it! I deserve this--all! Bitter as is the lesson, I deserve it. (sobs.
LEY. (C.). What do you mean? What shame? What bitterness?
MISS M. You ask me to say?
LEY. I demand----
MISS M. Don't you know that a lady is degraded on this island if a slave's hand has touched her? A slave's lips have touched mine!
LEY. (starts). Ah! (quickly and sternly) You were in the hut last night! You heard----
MISS M. (crosses to R. C.). I heard all!
LEY. (C.) Ah! (music, plaintive, change of tone and manner to calm ones) Miss Milburn! you have brought me to my senses. I ask your pardon. (voice falters for an instant, and then is strengthened by an effort) Humbly--on my knees--(droops on one knee) as a slave should! There is but one atonement (rises) that I can make. You will see me no more! (going up.)
MISS M. (starts to her feet to rush after him). Maurice! (remembers herself, stops short, trembling) Not in that tone! No! don't leave me! Not with that look! Oh! I have wrecked his proud spirit! I have broken his heart! I'll not leave you till you say you forgive me!
LEY. (sadly). Forgive you! Willingly! fully! with my heart of hearts!
MISS M. I did not mean it! I am but a woman! I did not know what I said. Oh! that look--that look of despair! that dreadful look of despair! Maurice, my heart bleeds for you! Say something angry to me--help me against myself! Maurice! (approaches him) Maurice! You know (falls on LEYRAC'S breast) I love you!
LEY. Oh! (in gratitude) I--I will remember this moment when the ocean rolls between us. For your dear sake I must quit this place at once.
MISS M. Oh, give me time to think. Don't be as cruel to me as I have been to you. I implore you, Maurice, wait here until I come back! I will come back! Wait for me. (goes R.) I'll not be long, Maurice!
[Exit, R. D.
LEY. (sighs). Ah! what a woman I have loved, what a woman I have lost! Wait for her here? (seated R. C) Why? To what purposed? It would but renew our leave-taking. No! I must spare her the misery of a last farewell. (rises) My life is ended. And yet I move! I breathe! I think I live! Pah! what am I surprised at? (up C.) It is the slave's blood in my veins--the slave's nature in my heart! A slave will submit to anything! (looks to R. D.) Farewell! my first and my last love, farewell! farewell! (hat on, goes up C.) forever! (chord.)
Enter, L. U. E., to D. F., WESTCRAFT, hat on. LEYRAC recedes down R. C., removing his hat politely in salute. WEST. You here again? Once for all, Mr. Frenchman, one of us is one too many in this house--I am in my right place--you are not. (comes down.)
LEY. You are in your right place?
WEST. Here? yes!
LEY. What do you mean? (crosses to be on WESTCRAFT'S L.)
WEST. Why, I am engaged to be married to Miss Milburn!
LEY. (checks himself in almost going to strike WESTCRAFT). You! (forced laugh) Ha, ha! Mr. Planter! As we say in France, "Un bon parti n'est pas trop souvent pris."
WEST. Keep your foreign gibberish to yourself!
LEY. My foreign gibberish? One can see that your education has been neglected. In the first place, one gentleman does not speak to another in that rough manner and rude tone.
WEST. (sternly). You keep a civil tongue in your head! fingers get crushed that meddle with my mill!
LEY. Worse and worse! I had no idea there were such barbarians amongst these savage islanders.
WEST. Are you mad, or drunk?
LEY. (sternly). First lesson, Mr. Planter! When you meet a gentleman in a lady's house, you should take your hat off. You see I have mine in my hand. You will not take yours off! No! (WESTCRAFT laughs in his face) There, then! (knocks WESTCRAFT'S hat off with his cane. WESTCRAFT steps back and half draws his bowie) If you lay a finger on me, I will strangle you where you stand! (tosses cane over R. C. WESTCRAFT sheathes knife, scowling.)
WOLF enters, R. U. E. to D. F. WOLF. Carriage ready, massa.
LEY. (sternly). Keep this from Miss Milburn's knowledge, or expect another lesson! Send your seconds to my hotel. I shall await them there in an hour from this time, Mr. Planter! (bows formally and exits L. U. E. by D. F.)
WEST. (up to C., WOLF stepping in front of D. F., R. side of it). Wolf, pick up that cane, and wait for me in the market-place till I come. (smiles vindictively. WOLF picks up cane slowly, grinning fiercely.)
Scene closes in. SCENE II.--Interior, hotel room in 1st grooves.
Enter, L. to C., LEYRAC.
LEY. I have provided for my faithful servant. If I fall in the duel all is over. If I live--(pauses) I live? There is one thing more. Michaelmas! (calling to R.) Michaelmas!
DAVID enters, R. D. to C. DAVID. Sir!
LEY. Give me your hand. (DAVID excuses himself) You know that fortune has reversed our stations. I, who was your master, am a slave on your estates. When I ask you for your hand, and you give it, it is an honor you do me, my master! Still refusing? Have you forgotten what I told you when I came back to the hotel last night?
DAVID. No, I have forgotten nothing of it. I wish I could.
LEY. I was your master in France--but you are my master here, and I am your slave.
DAVID. (feelingly). Oh! think of me as you please, but don't speak of yourself in that dreadful way. Here, as everywhere, you know what I am: the devoted servant of the best and kindest master man ever had.
LEY. Thank you, David!
DAVID. I am trying to keep down my emotions, sir, but, like champagne, they will bubble up. I know I ought to be ashamed of myself, as a well-trained servant. If I was a page under a butler now, he would punch my head, and serve me deucedly well right.