PARIS. No! No! Don't you hear the flutter of wings?
HELENA. Wings?
PARIS [ecstatically]. Venus, mother of Love!
HELENA [alarmed]. What is it?
PARIS. She has sent her messenger. I hear the patter of little
feet.
HELENA. Those little feet are the soldiers below in the
courtyard. [A trumpet sounds.]
PARIS [the truth of the situation breaking through his emotion].
In a moment I shall be killed.
HELENA. Killed?
PARIS. Save me and save yourself!
HELENA. Myself?
PARIS. I shall rescue you and lead you on to life.
HELENA. No one has ever spoken to me like that before.
PARIS. This is the first time your ears have heard the truth.
HELENA. Was it of you I've been dreaming?
PARIS. Your dream was but your unrealized desire.
HELENA. Menelaus has never made me feel like this. [And then with
a sudden shriek.] Oh! I'm a wicked woman!
PARIS. No! No!
HELENA. For years I've been living with a man I didn't love.
PARIS. Yes! Yes!
HELENA. I'm lost!
PARIS [at a loss]. No! Yes! Yes! No!
HELENA. It was a profanation of the most holy.
PARIS. The holiest awaits you, Helena! Our love will lighten the
Plutonian realms.
Pages:
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120