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THE DOUBLE LOVE 
 
 A TRAGEDY 
 
 In Five Acts 
 
 A DRAMA OF AMERICAN LIFE 
 
 BY 
 
 ARTHUR DOUGHERTY REES 
 
 THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. 
 PHILADELPHIA. PA. 
 

 LIbRARYofCONQRESS 
 Two Copies Received 
 MAY 3 1907 
 ^opyneht Entry 
 
 GLA&S £) XXc, No, 
 
 COPY B. 
 
 Copyright, 1907. by 
 
 A. D. PvEES 
 

 " Cross out, please, those immensely overpaid accounts, 
 That matter of Troy and Achilles wrath," etc. 
 
 '•'"* Pf'alt ly hitman 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 (In the drawing-room at Mr. Vardaman's home. Late 
 afternoon of the first day. Enter Arline, followed 
 by her Father.) 
 
 Arl. If love presages peace, then let me love! 
 Exuberantly love ! complain no more ; 
 Love shall not die nor yield its just estate. 
 O let me rest alone 'till Ronel comes. 
 
 (Seats herself.) 
 
 Var. Arline — ^this must not be; you must refrain. 
 
 Arl. (Rises and turns to him.) 
 Father — demur no more against his suit. 
 
 Var. Against this visit I shall not protest, 
 But the entreaty of his ardent love 
 Is most unreasonable. 
 
 Arl. Young Love's hey-day 
 
 Will spend it's happy hours despite of that. 
 
 Var. Oh, well! it's zealous pleas shall knock in vain 
 Upon the bolted door of my consent 
 Like winds upon a sail which only flaps, 
 But does not move. 
 
 Arl. My complaining father, 
 Pray, be recipient of my tender prayer; 
 The mother lap wherein I lay my head. 
 For she is gone who bore me. Would I were 
 With her, when sorrow frets my gladsome heart! 
 
 (7) 
 
8 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Var. O fie! such sentiment has little worth, 
 Much like the sonnet— steps to clouds and skies, 
 So deftly fabricated for your flight 
 Unto the pretty stars with him who woos 
 By verses, and who knits his net with dreams. 
 
 Arl. Father, tax not the heritage of youth. 
 And slander not the tend'rest passion of 
 My soul. Love lags not when 'tis laden thus 
 With taunts, but to fulfilment fain doth leap. 
 
 Var. But seven days more you may, — as you have 
 done, — 
 Companion him with your intei'it to wed, 
 Lest he forswear his visionary toil ; 
 Expel forever his confounded dream, — 
 That wan and unsubstantial quest that cheats 
 Our world of commerce of an able youth. — 
 See to't, my child, that you acquaint him now 
 With this, the single tender for your hand 
 And let him coin none else. For seven days 
 His access shall be free; persuade, advise: 
 And if he's unconverted to my law. 
 Rebellious to its rule, then this home shall 
 Be purged of his forbidden presence, and 
 Our lives and ev'n our memories scoured of him. 
 
 Arl. O father — 
 
 Var. Stop! speak not to thwart my will. 
 
 Arl. Brutal duress to dare his true love with ! 
 But test this vot'ry of a double hope. 
 Let choler try to win him to your trade. 
 And see the failure of it. 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 9 
 
 Var. Daughter, take 
 
 This judgment from my Hps, for I have watched 
 His dream with sinuous and deluding curl 
 Ensnare your heart with beauty and entwine 
 Your love in it. But now it must uncoil. 
 
 Arl. Oh, no! its twilight hath not come so soon 
 Love's sun sets not whilst hearts are young and yare. 
 O father! speak not thus, but peer into 
 Your daughter's soul and let your man's range prime 
 Itself to woman's love, then build your law. 
 
 Var. My law is giv'n, my child, you must obey. 
 
 Arl. Oh scan awhile with other eyes than yours, 
 Press not upon my saddened soul, appeal 
 From your assize to God's. He would appraise 
 My love at love's own worth and make me free. 
 Oh mother ministrant ! blest spir't be near, 
 To blend thy song with mine that he may hear ! 
 {Enter her sister Constance.) 
 
 Con. Oh, Sister you are almost in tears, why 
 This sorrow? 
 
 Arl. Father hath declared that Ronel 
 Must make preferment in these sev'n next days 
 Between his quest and me. The fabian fruit 
 Of worthy fealty to a double love 
 Will ripen soon, if not forst ailed by hate, — 
 Th' abortive edict of an arbiter 
 Who's alien to the holiest of life. — 
 
 Con. Oh speak not thus : Father doth know the best 
 We have discoursed upon thy love; his quest. 
 This sweet emeute and first flushed fancy of 
 Thy spirit's the foredawn of truer love. 
 
10 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Oh, cast it out, and think on him who'd grace 
 His surplusage of love with wealth and place. 
 
 Arl. Be wise my sister, know when hearts aspire 
 There's no emetic for true love's desire. 
 Love is but leased awhile to those who woo 
 And have no wealth of heart with which to sue. 
 
 Con. Oh, take my shrewder word, my wiser thought, 
 In carking worlds that witless love is nought ; 
 Tempered with prudence, sentineled with wile. 
 Such love no longer will your heart beguile. 
 
 Arl. Oh, sister of my self -same blood, dost thou 
 Declare such erring love is love • enow? 
 Oh ripple not thy tongue with words untrue 
 Nor shame thy soul with thoughts which thou shalt rue. 
 
 Var. My daughter, you must stop persisting in 
 Your much misplaced affection ; let your mind 
 Be fixed upon my unrel axing law. 
 I add thereto that 'till the seven days 
 Have passed, or 'till my sager thought prevail, 
 You must not leave your home without consent. 
 
 Arl. How blank thy heart, and sister how adroit 
 Thy speech; how cold and worldly is thy love! 
 I'm angry with you; Ronel, where art thou? 
 I would that he were come to help me breast 
 This murky tide that urges poison in 
 Each porous weakness of my soul! 
 
 {Enter the Butler who announces Mr. Vane.) 
 
 Arl. He comes! 
 
 {Enter Ronel Vane.) 
 I cry to him for help. Oh, noble heart! 
 (Vane hows to and addresses Mr. Vardaman and Con- 
 stance. He takes Arline's hand) 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. n 
 
 Arl. {With tears in her eyes.) Oh Ronel, these my 
 kin, rebelUon make 
 Against our promised loves. I'm labored so 
 With their bestriding charge, I crave thy help. 
 Oh strong, strong heart to thee I ever cling ! 
 
 Ron. Ah! what strange thing is this that's grown 
 between 
 Thy soul and mine? {To Mr. Vardaman.) Sir, I be- 
 seech you now ; 
 With livery of words but not of hate, 
 Tell me your sudden wish. 
 
 Var. Neither with hate nor coil of subtlety 
 I do acquaint you with my sternest will, 
 Nor gild the livery of it. Seven days 
 Have been decreed the league of time for you 
 To choose one love; your brace of ambitions 
 Disturbs my mind too much, and one must cease. 
 Give o'er in seven days your futile dream 
 Of conquest with your pen ; th' immature thought 
 Of one who is unscourged by the rough world ; 
 Walk the Rialto of true trade, the mart 
 Of traffic, then you may possess my child. 
 Consider well th' incumbencies of love, 
 For seven days ; if then you should not choose, 
 As I desire, you lose your toss ; Arline 
 Shall be conveyed beyond your reach ; 'till then 
 My daughter must not leave her home. 
 
 Ron. O sir, 
 
 This hard and sudden summons to such choice 
 Comes of a cold, unsympathetic heart. 
 
12 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 O ultimate the issue softer, sir! 
 And think of her, your daughter, and of me» 
 Whose soul is winged with a strange double love, 
 And let them beat in unison ! 
 
 Var. Young man, 
 
 This is a useless charge against my law. 
 
 Arl. Try not the caliber of father's will 
 For it is stronger than his heart is big. 
 
 Con. O Ronel, Ronel, choose the fairer way! 
 My father's a man of the world; he knows. 
 My sister's due of wherewithal in life 
 Is chanced upon a gamble you' would act. 
 
 Arl. Pray, cease your argument, let him alone, 
 My sacrifice for him is quite my own. 
 
 Ron. Let us not wrangle o'er the burdening theme, 
 For we must make our war upon't in peace, 
 And yet I do appeal again, Arline, 
 To him the maker of it. My surprise 
 Hath veiled my power. O sir, — 
 
 Var. {Moving to the door) I will not hear 
 Your worthless protests. 
 
 Ron. Listen, sir, again! 
 
 Var. I will not; I have given you my word. 
 
 {He goes out.) 
 
 Ron. Bitter alternatives! O Loves conjoin! 
 Against the tempest that would rive ye twain ! 
 Ambition! Love! Life's double claims, be sealed 
 In sanctity of one endeavor now! 
 Ah! for what sins of thine are these sev'n days 
 Penurious probation? Oh I feel 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 13 
 
 An empty feebleness of mind to cope 
 With this imprisonment of my desires! 
 Oh Life! two-fold affiliate to my soul, 
 All other bondage sever, claim thine own ! 
 Assert thy lusty, flooding self in me, — 
 An agent of thine inner will and truth, — 
 For my love's sake! 
 
 Con. Speak to him, sister, speak: 
 Repeat the law. Bid him be mindful of 
 The charge upon him. Now I must depart. 
 
 {She goes out) 
 
 Arl. My Ronel, raise thy head; lift up thy heart! 
 O comfort and be comforted ! help purge 
 My mind of all that bleak and chafing thought 
 Before it's leafage blooms! My soul is weak: 
 Seems doomed to sufferance when my father speaks. 
 Anger him not ; his greatest passion is 
 The scion of an artless goad. 
 
 Ron. My love, 
 
 I'll gird thee 'round with all my strength, although 
 'Tis small, thy very need doth help it grow. 
 Oh let us hope and let us love, though hope 
 Were gone, as these next sev'n days soon will be! 
 In grief my judgment is but lottery ! 
 
 Arl. How the keen world doth gaze with master eye, 
 Upon Love's countenance to scan each flaw; 
 Measure each feature, and dissolve each dream 
 Into some crude and common element! 
 Let us compel it's carping visage on 
 Love's masterpiece! Transmute it's base regard 
 Into a light from heaven! 
 
14 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Ron. Would that we could! 
 
 We stand upon the dim inconstant marge 
 Of the incorp'rate future, sev'n steps off. 
 No proverbed sage or mystic wizard can 
 Peer 'neath it's visor! Some monition strange 
 Doth blunt itself on me. 
 
 Arl. Oh Ronel, speak! 
 
 What means that clouded emptiness that lowers 
 Upon your face? You love me yet? Oh speak! 
 Lest I do weep again! 
 
 Ron. Those publishers ! 
 
 Arl. They have refused your work? 
 
 Ron. That is their will. 
 
 Arl. Oh ignorant will! Refusal base! This day 
 Roughly aspires to be Love's Ides of March! 
 Un cloud your face; forgetful of all ill, 
 Oh let us love! ■ 
 
 Ron. Love helps us to forget 
 
 These knocks that fain would foil our sweet intent. 
 
 Arl. Oh holy Love, serene, not basely sly, 
 That all unruffled can elude the wiles 
 Of skulking kin; frustrate each cavil; blanch 
 Dark carping frowns of life, pluck carefully 
 The rose ; thou shalt be little pricked ! 
 
 Ro-N. Thus sing, 
 
 For that doth rid my heart awhile of doubt, 
 And then no preying strife conceives therein ! 
 For it is brimmed with Love, most blessed Love. 
 
 Arl. Lovest thou me? 
 
 Ron. My sweet, 'tis thee I love. 
 
 {They embrace.) 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 15 
 
 Arl. I would this instant were Eternity, 
 And that the joy of lover's sweet embrace 
 Were never truant to lover's desire! 
 
 Ron. My soul breaks out upon you like the swell 
 Of a great wave over a fragile shell! 
 
 Arl. Oh Love, this life's only infallible, 
 Thou art the mold of Truth's supremest shape! 
 
 Ron. Would we might anchor Time whereat it is, 
 And on the sea of changelessness endure! 
 Be still O Time! At peace, my Heart, with Love! 
 For strife and doubt it is the only cure ! 
 
 Arl. The coppice rings with amorous birds ; the bee 
 And cricket drone their day-long love songs free! 
 Winds woo the tree tops, mountains woo the sky ; 
 Waves woo the shore and star woos star on high ! 
 O nature draws the willing heart to this : 
 That God is Love and Love is all that is ! 
 Wherefore, O father mine, am I forbid 
 To love as my heart teaches; be thus chid 
 To follow not the wanton mazes of 
 Divine invested, sweet enchanting Love? 
 
 Ron. Thy sweet and tender song an eddy is. 
 That winds me in its soft and ambient arm! 
 O I would sink within it 's spiral strain 
 Unto it's very soul! 
 
 Arl. Bondage most sweet ! 
 
 Ron. My love, my perfect love, would thou wert 
 mine! 
 
 halcyon ecstacy and life most blest ! 
 
 1 cry this unto thee, for thou dost seem 
 
 Ever most like such crowned and flesh-cast spir't! 
 
i6 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 With thee I lose life's care; it's guerdon gain. 
 
 O unflecked joy ! trophy of loving hearts ! 
 
 My soul is sphered with a halo pure — , 
 
 The won'drous sylphine effluence of thy self — , 
 
 Intoxicant sublime! Oh fold me, dear, 
 
 In Love-arms; while love lasts we'll feed upon't. 
 
 {They embrace again.) 
 
 Arl. I could with but my overplus of Love 
 Fill father's concave emptiness of heart; 
 Cancel its factious beatings, then be free! 
 
 Ron. Stir not th' unmindfulness of deepest love 
 With thought of him. 
 
 Arl. O I would not, but then, 
 
 His shadow blots the lintel of my mind. 
 And Thought can not emerge but through the gloom. 
 
 Ron. Oh how love's own frontier is barbed with 
 pain! 
 The author of it plants his spite and hate. 
 
 {Disengages himself; stands apart.) 
 Think you how he doth leer and lour at Love ! 
 And at my holy quest ! My loved 's one's here. 
 Would that the Grail were nigh! My burdened soul 
 In fluctuating grief is quarantined. 
 For now I'm liegeman to the King of Joy, 
 And now a vassal to the Queen of Dole ! 
 
 Arl. O Ronel, speak not with so much of doubt. 
 Thou know'st I love thee and shall always love! 
 Will that not help thee seek and grasp the Grail?, 
 Curb not thy hope nor love because of grief : 
 Distill it from them, so they shall be pure. 
 
 Ron. My sweet Arline, whatever true surcease 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 17 
 
 Of pain is mine, I thank thee for; I'll live 
 
 Thy bidding as I can, nor yet think on 
 
 His charge, though it's confining gloom vaults me 
 
 Around. 
 
 Arl. Wait 'till the day has passed, then we 
 Shall think, devise, conclude together on 
 This common grief, as we together love. 
 
 Ron. Hist! who is coming? {A noise of steps is 
 
 heard.) 
 Arl. Someone's approaching. 
 
 'Tis Mrs. Gavit, perhaps 
 
 Ron. O 'tis that woman, is it? 
 
 {Enter jatintily, Mrs. Gavit, with her accustomed freedom 
 of entree) 
 Mrs. Gav. My pardon for this interruption. 
 Arl. Come in Monna, I'm glad to see you. 
 Ron. {Bowing to Mrs. Gavit.) Mrs. Gavit, good 
 
 afternoon. 
 Mrs. Gav. My compliments to you, Mr. Vane, and 
 my invitation to you both, for I bear tidings of 
 dinner joys. Will you not partake with us to-mor- 
 row evening at the Golf Club ? We shall be pleased 
 with the company of lovers. 
 Arl. It is sweet of you to ask us, Monna, I shall 
 
 come with Ronel if he welcome it as I. 
 Mrs. Gav. Mr. Vane, surrender to the garish world 
 awhile! Make a truce with gravity and Love. 
 These by -plays about the convivial board are per- 
 quisites of life. 
 Ron. I do not deal much in the extremities of 
 conviviality or soberness, Mrs. Gavit. 
 
i8 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. I'd be the mistress of the world's revels, 
 if I could. 
 
 Ron. Well, as you know, I am one who lives life 
 after another measure. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. You are a youthful weaver of dullard 
 greys. 
 
 Ron. O not I! But you play on. Pursue your 
 neutrality 'tween Truth and Love, but not forever. 
 Life will bring a better part some day. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Come, don't soar on paper wings in such 
 a manner, — ^unless they are greenbacks, — ^those pen- 
 nons can transport you anywhere. 
 
 Ron. Mrs. Gavit, your kindness shall be accepted, 
 but not your philosophy. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. O there are many like you, and they fall 
 thick as the leaves in Vallombrosa. 
 
 Ron. Please excuse my departure. Arline, I shall 
 be here for you tomorrow evening. 
 
 {Bows to both and goes out.) 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Has he been gadding with his courtship 
 words again? 
 
 Arl. Monna ! 
 
 Mrs. Gav. What a pellucid nature his is! Half 
 beguiled by his over-ardent love and by the vanish- 
 ing flame of highly wrought ambition. 
 
 Arl. Monna, do not talk like that. I will not hear it. 
 His love is love in spite of your peevishness. You 
 have allowed the world to trespass on your heart 
 and die its dark tinge on your life, but do not, 
 therefore, misprise my own and Ronel's. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Well, child, do as you will, but look well. 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 19 
 
 You would not marry him? Just see the cut of his 
 coat, and what a bow! 
 
 Arl. My Monna, cease, or be no longer mine. Neither 
 my ear nor heart are open to these gibes. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Will you be with us as I have asked? 
 
 Arl. {Hesitating and thoughtful.) My soul is flecked 
 with a huge grief, but I shall borrow lightness of 
 heart and come. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Your grief will vanish like man's love! 
 
 Arl. Monna, hush! 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Let us go out in the garden. 
 
 Arl. (Rising.) Come along then, we'll go out to- 
 gether. 
 
 (They go out together.) 
 Curtain. 
 
 ACT II— Scene i. 
 Time. — Early evening of the second day. 
 Place. — Same as in Act I. 
 (Seated; Ronel Vane, in street costume; enter Mr. 
 Yard AM AN.) 
 Var. Well young man, what's the word? 
 Ron. (Rising.) The word? the word? the word is 
 
 Love! 
 V AR . Come , surrender your daftness ! 
 Ron. If Love be daftness, then Love is it, and has 
 no flume for an exit. But, sir, enough of that ; now 
 let us reason peacefully over this problem. 
 Var. There shall be no reasoning on it at all; the 
 law is fixed, although you are very shifty. 
 
20 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Ron. Would I were! Then there would be an easy 
 escape from certain lawmakers. 
 
 Var. You need not touch me with your slights. 
 You lure Love with such blarney that I would 
 establish a faith that you had no impertinence in 
 you. But precede it with decision; what's the 
 answer to my charge? 
 
 Ron. Why so much hurry, sir? My answer has yet 
 been neither conceived nor worded; when it is I 
 shall tell you; but let me consider the question 
 with you first. 
 
 Var. I will not, and I can not give a plaudit for such 
 lack-lustre haste. Curb your softened wit to 
 nimble thinking and do it quickly. 
 
 Ron. There! be no pertness about that expedition, 
 sir; much less of it than in your speech, and my 
 thought shall have more wisdom than there is in 
 such a witless toboganning into judgment. 
 
 Var. You have slidden into love with such a face- 
 tious speed, however, that the quicker you leave 
 it, the better for both of us. 
 
 A day-full of hours has passed since I informed 
 you of my decree ; the debate on it is over. What's 
 the answer? 
 
 You give me none. Your decisions drift like driz- 
 zling rain. O let them shower out! 
 
 Ron. You'll anger me into thunder with your persis- 
 tence. I tell you: there shall be no answer yet, 
 and your blunt refusal to hear a peaceful pleading 
 delays its arrival. 
 
 Var. None vet! Manana! To-morrow! Meanwhile 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 21 
 
 this blunt-witted procrastination shall do what? 
 'Twill steal what you have treasured. Rivet 
 
 your mind to that. He's another grafter who 
 
 cannot be jailed. 
 Ron. We'll guard him, then, with ferret eyes. 
 Var. You will not answer yet ? 
 Ron. Not yet. 
 Var. Remember, then, there are but six days left. 
 
 Think well in them, for there shall not be a single 
 
 moment of grace. 
 Ron. Oho ! only six days ! Six days in which to say 
 
 yes or no! 
 
 Why, man, God made heaven and earth in six 
 
 days. And now 'tis given to me to say in them 
 
 only one word. 
 
 Oho ! to-morrow or perhaps the next day ! 
 Var. You make quite a show of indifference with 
 
 your flippancy. 
 Ron. But one word more, sir. A simple request 
 
 that bears little on our problem. Your daughter 
 
 and myself have been invited to dinner this evening 
 
 at the Golf Club. I hope it will please you to 
 
 allow us this much scope of pleasure in these seven 
 
 days? 
 Var. If it will hasten the consummation of my desire, 
 
 go ; any access to that I would open. 
 Ron. Thank you, sir' 
 Var. But be taking thought for the morrow while 
 
 there. 
 Ron. Take thought for the morrow? Why, sir, 
 
 that is not scriptural! 
 
22 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 {Enter Arline.) 
 {To Arline.) Arline, your stay-at-liome order has a 
 furlough this evening, so let us be off to the Golf 
 Club. 
 Arl. Ah! that is pleasant. Thank you, father. 
 
 {They how to him and go out.) 
 (Mr. Vardaman watches them with a serious regard.) 
 
 Curtain. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 Time, — A little later in the evening of the second day. 
 
 Place. — The Golf Club House of the village; in the din- 
 ing-room; a table near the center, two plates of sand- 
 wiches, numerous glasses and napkins on it, chairs 
 scattered around. 
 
 {Enter Mrs. Havens and Mrs. Gavit.) 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Quite so, and 'tis a pity to bonded to 
 Love in so galling a manner. 
 
 Mrs. Hav. Methinks she is so much enthralled that 
 other pleasures have quite withdrawn their powers. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. What a pity ! Think of linking a life with 
 that man! 
 
 Mrs. Hav. These froward passions of young hearts 
 seem most unnatural to me. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Quite true! I have waded through them, 
 and have seen many more. The young conclude 
 that they comport with the will of nature, but be- 
 lieve me, there's many a breach in Love and Logic. 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 23 
 
 Mrs. Ha v. Yes, and the fissure in one is for foolish- 
 ness ; in the other for sorrow. 
 {Enter Mr. Gavit, Mr. Havens and Constance.) 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Welcome, friends, one and all! 
 
 {They severally greet each other.) 
 
 Mr. Gav. {To Mrs. Hav.) You look as fresh as the 
 bowling green, Mrs. Havens. 
 
 Mrs. Hav. Well, you're a little dun and brown! 
 
 Mr. Gav. O ! that's only my suit of drab ! 
 
 {Enter Arline Vardaman and Ronel Vane.) 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Here are the lovers! Ladies and Gentle- 
 men, Miss Vardaman and Mr. Vane! 
 {They how and greet the others; Arline, Mrs. Havens and 
 Mr. Vane group together.) 
 
 Mrs. Hav. (To Arline.) Your relations are bruited 
 about quite loudly, friends. 
 
 Arl. More so than makes it welcome to us. 
 
 Mrs. Hav. Things so bruited are often broken. 
 
 Arl. O, Mrs. Havens, pray, do not be so suggestive! 
 It is not pleasant to either of us. 
 
 Ron. Rumor always cuts off other's heads but never 
 its own. 
 
 Mrs. Hav. Well, suicide is not anybody's business, 
 you know. • 
 
 Ron. But Love's seems to belong to all. 
 
 Mrs. Hav. Only two's to-night. (Mrs. Gavit ap- 
 proaches.) 
 
 Mrs. Gav. What, Love again! Mrs. Havens, let 
 them alone in their sublimity. 
 Be seated, please, until our little collation is served 
 
24 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Mostly sandwiches, friends. We must forego the 
 dinner on account of a mishap in our arrange- 
 ments. I must ask the pardon of all for the omis- 
 sion. 
 
 Mrs. Hav. O, we must have champagne for Mr. 
 Havens. {All sit down.) Where is he? {Looks 
 about; then goes to him. Constance and Mr. Gavit 
 are seated there also; Mrs. Gavit converses with 
 Arline and Ronel.) 
 
 Mrs. Hav. {To Mr. Havens.) Charlie, the house 
 looks to you for its champagne this evening. 
 
 Mr. Hav. You may have the champagne, my dear, 
 but as for me, nothing of that kind to-night, thank 
 you. 
 Who is that chap over there? {Pointing to Ronel.) 
 
 Mrs. Hav. That's Mr. Vane, the aspiring author and 
 lover. 
 
 Mr. Hav. He is a penman of some caliber? 
 
 Mrs. Hav. Well, his quill may be the plunger but 
 he does not deal in stocks. 
 
 Mr. Hav. He is somewhat taciturn, but I can see his 
 heart on his sleeve, quite plainly. 
 
 Mr. Gav. We're pecking at it nicely, too. 
 
 Mrs. Hav. It serves more purpose there than his 
 buttons do, and we'll never peck at them. 
 
 Mr. Hav. O, well, the world scrapes both off, before 
 one's brushed long against it. 
 
 He'll strike a tougher stratum than the clouds 
 when he comes back to us. He'll fall quickly; 
 more quickly than Lucifer; he'll plunge like a 
 broken elevator. 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 25 
 
 Mr. Gav. Telescope your jibes, Charlie; even our 
 
 eyelids have their ups and downs. 
 {Calling to Mrs. Gavit.) 
 
 Sandwiches, Mrs. Gavit! 
 
 {To Mr. Havens.) 
 
 Serve the stream from Lethe's fount! Charlie! 
 (Mrs. Gavit rings a hell; waiter enters. Mr. Havens 
 
 gives an order for a couple of bottles of champagne. 
 
 The gentlemen distribute the napkins and sandwiches.) 
 Mr. Gav, Are these sandwiches handmade? 
 Mrs. Gav. Yes, and each one is a work of art. 
 Mr. Gav. Ha! art for eating's sake; that's something 
 
 new. 
 {Waiter enters, pours out champagne in all glasses but 
 Mr. Havens', who turns his down.) 
 Mr. Hav. Leave out your art, Sim. Your hot air 
 
 about it's like a trade wind. 
 Mr. Gav. Well then, it is not a fickle thing. 
 Ron. And it rather warms one up too, Mr. Gavit. 
 Mr. Gav. That's right. {Taking up his glass of 
 
 champagne.) Ah! "The cypress slender minister of 
 
 wine ! ' ' 
 Mrs. Gav. Now, Gavvy Sire, don't be emotional. It 
 
 may overcome you. 
 Mr. Gav. The emotion? Here's to you all, ladies 
 
 and gentlemen! {He drinks.) 
 Mrs. Hav. To your health, Mr. Vane! 
 Ron. I drink to your's, Mrs. Havens. 
 {They extend their glasses toward each other in response.) 
 Mr. Gav. *'Ah, fill me with the old familiar juice!" 
 
26 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Gavvy Sire, poetry and champagne may 
 
 be your undoing! 
 Mr. Gav. Mrs. Gavit be quiet! Waiter, brim my 
 
 glass! {Waiter does so.) 
 
 Ho! friends, I quaff to all of you! Listen: Why is 
 
 wine like a prism? No answer? Because it shows 
 
 its many colors! Ha! Ha! Not even Vane 
 
 thought of it ! 
 Mrs. Gav. Gavvy Sire, you are showing your's much 
 
 too brilliantly! 
 Mr. Gav. "Indeed, indeed, repentance 'oft before 
 
 I swore ! but was I sober when I swore ? " 
 Mrs. Gav. Mr. Gavit, behave. 
 Mr. Gav. Be-have! This is my behavior. {Drinks 
 
 again) Ha! friends, why is wine like a fur coat? 
 
 Nobody knows? Oh, that's very simple ! Because 
 
 it keeps you warm ! {He sprawls over the table in 
 
 an effort to reach another bottle.) 
 Mrs. Ha v. {Standing on her chair, holding a glass 
 
 of champagne and calling to her husband, who is 
 
 opposite her.) Charlie, you are disgustingly sober! 
 Mr. Ha v. {Smiling unperturbed.) Well, I think 
 
 one of us ought to be. 
 Mrs. Hav. Aha! I shall make you reel! Fore! 
 {She throws her wine glass at him; it falls on the floor.) 
 
 Oh ! my arm is a fine putter ! 
 Mr. Hav. {After dodging the glass; to Mrs. Havens.) 
 
 I must resolve you are intoxicated. Now. Con- 
 clude that beastliness. 
 Mrs. Hav. And 'tis you who would make a show of 
 
 such a conclusion? You, with such a record in this 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 27 
 
 club? Oh, you are disgustingly conclusive and 
 hypocritical, Charlie! Fore! {Throws her sand- 
 wich at him.) 
 Mr. Hav, Friends, I am going to leave. I ask you 
 to pardon my departure. {He hows to Mrs. Gavit 
 and goes out) 
 Mr. Gav. Turn down an empty glass! 
 Mrs. Hav. {Looks at him a moment, as does the rest of 
 the company) Fore! Fore! 'Tis me, though, and 
 not the golf ball ! {Rushes out after him) 
 {Silence in the company a moment.) 
 Mr. Gav. Oho ! turn down another empty glass. 
 Con. Gavvy Sire, do not be so light minded. 
 Mr. Gav. Miss Constance, I have not taken as much 
 
 as that ! 
 Mrs. Gav. Gavvy Sire, I'll send you home to your 
 
 easel. 
 Mr. Gav. "Ah, beloved, fill the cup that clears," 
 and so forth, you know the rest ! Come, waiter 
 {holding out his glass), brim it once more! Here's 
 to you Miss Arline, none else will take my compli- 
 ments. 
 
 (Arline merely stares at him) 
 Ron. I am going to leave this company, too. Arline. 
 let us go. Such intoxication is brutish. (Rises.) 
 Mrs. Gav. Be seated, please, Mr. Vane, there is no 
 
 intoxication here but that of merry company! 
 Mr. Gav. O he's intoxicated with Love! let him 
 
 depart. 
 Mrs. Gav. Gavvy Sire, hush! 
 
28 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Arl. (Amwg.) Monna, I am going with Ronel. 
 (Mr. Vane walks to the door, after homing to Mrs. 
 Gavit. Arline follows directly after him) 
 
 Mr. Gav. O well, let him go out to his moonlight — ; 
 the sunlight at second hand! That's the way such 
 as he take the pleasures of life ! 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Gavvy Sire, you are very rude. 
 
 Mr. Gav. Turn down two more empty glasses! 
 And brim yet one again for me ! 
 
 Mrs. Gav. If you do not stop this rudeness, I shall 
 go home alone. 
 
 Mr. Gav. Aha! you go home alone! I'll go in to 
 New York. We've parted ways in that manner 
 before. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Gavvy Sire, I'm ashamed of you! 
 
 Mr. Gav. Oho! I must have dealt in too much 
 publicity. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Constance, with your permission I with- 
 draw. I will await you in the corridor. (Con- 
 stance nods assent; Mrs. Gavit goes out.) 
 
 Mr. Gav. "And much as wine has played the infidel, 
 And robbed me of my honor, — " well, turn down 
 another empty glass! 
 
 Con. Why don't you be a good man? 
 
 Mr. Gav. Now, girlie, don't you preach. I've got 
 models enough in my studio. 
 
 Con. I wish you had been as silent as they. 
 
 Mr. Gav. O you would have me as stiff-backed as 
 that Hindoo idol of mine. 
 
 Con. Well, somewhat as silent, anyhow. 
 
 Mr. Gav. What! Silent in merry company? 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 29 
 
 Con. Gavvy Sire, I'll talk with you no longer. I 
 
 am going. (She goes out. After turning around 
 
 to see her depart.) 
 Mr. Gav. They abandon me, but comrade Omar 
 
 stretches forth his hand. 
 "O thou, who did'st with pitfall and with gin, 
 Beset the road I was to wander in" — 
 Yes, that's me! 
 
 "O well, let Him impute my fall to sin!" 
 "The worldly hope men set their hearts upon 
 
 Turns ashes or it prospers " 
 
 H'm; that's that fellow Vane. 
 
 We are playing the same game, but in different ways, 
 
 and he does not know it. {Leistirely wanders out.) 
 Curtain. 
 
 ACT III. 
 Time. — Afternoon of the third day. 
 Place. — Same as in Act I — the drawing room. 
 {Enter Arline and Ronel.) 
 Ron. Arline, thy vestal life is tainted here 
 In these domains and company; confines 
 That cramp the bounding spir't, yet not too small 
 But that the world's hoof tramps upon thy heart ; 
 Club-house debauches disengage thy soul 
 From it's estate: — Olympian loftiness; — 
 A father's despotism chain thy will! 
 Put on thy hauberk of resolve and breast 
 These pressing tides! Come, heart and hand with me 
 In triumph over past them and be free ! 
 
30 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Arl. O Ronel, I am sad with evil shows 
 Of life around me, and at times I think 
 Each false attendant ; fardels that distract, 
 Are God-sent challenges to faith and deed. 
 When I feel that, I leap! Unwonted passion 
 Brews me a dream; a dare! — ^the pregnant cue 
 For enterprise that will be praised and damned. 
 O God! lengthen my plummet line that it 
 May touch upon the deep and leave these shoals ! 
 
 Ron. These haunts are truly shallows where thy soul 
 Sadly careens upon the ocean's floor. 
 O sail with me for we shall cle,ave the deep ! 
 Throw off the ponderous chain ; these yokes of ill ; 
 A tyrannous father's rage; the scorn of friends; 
 The insolence of jaded, gelid folk, 
 
 With pattering tongues; sere hearts; the callid trulls 
 Of golf -club houses, worse than of the street ; 
 O let us leave them ; haste away from here ! 
 Two hearts, one flight. The offing's just beyond 
 The orbit of thy barren home; say yea! 
 Be that the answer for thy sire to-day ! 
 
 Arl. I am concerned not with my word to him. 
 Would that my heart make answer to my head ! 
 
 Ron. O let me be thy heart, I'll answer it. 
 
 Arl. Thou cans't not have and be it, both! 
 
 Ron. O then 
 
 I'll loan it thee awhile, its argument 
 Will teach thy head the trtier precedent. 
 
 Arl. It is not tenented in thee at will 
 And though you send it back, 'tis with thee still ! 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 31 
 
 Ron. If thy heart is with me and thou bast none, 
 The judgment of thy head will then be done. 
 
 Arl. The head and heart must e'er together be, 
 And into one merge each diverse decree. 
 
 Ron. Then let thy head fiee where thy heart hath 
 fied, 
 The merger by a lavish love be led! 
 
 Arl. Would it could flee, and slip the short 'ning 
 tether 
 Of this bare pasture, and withdraw my all 
 From father: give it into trust to him 
 Who loves me ! That is Love ! but a love which 
 Can scarce, alas, live with impunity. 
 
 Ron. Rob not thyself of choice by such a thought 
 That wraps th' aspiring heart until it sweats. 
 Subdues the mind and cankers deepest love. 
 
 dearest, leave this life and flee away 
 
 1 feel the threatening of the seventh day ! 
 
 Arl. But I must think on him who nourished me ; 
 His wish, and my sad life's own scope with him. 
 Before I orphan me to all but love. 
 
 Ron. And let his base word pierce thee to the hilt? 
 
 Arl. I mean not to remain for such a thrust. 
 
 Ron. There is no spikenard from a bare rock. 
 
 Arl. That have I learned; I know it just as thou. 
 O I have need of prayers! grant me their boon 
 To slack this gripping tension of my mind. 
 And put me en rapport with Truth and Love ! 
 
 Ron. My prayer for thee is this; recreate thy life; 
 Then seek the soul's true zone ; join heart and hand 
 In deft escape with me ! O let us flee ! 
 
 Arl. Ah! flee whither? 
 
32 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Ron. To the great ocean's shore; by the calm deep, 
 For it's contagious peace fosters our love. 
 
 Arl. 'Tis useless immolation of my soul 
 If I live here. My untried tutelage 
 In judgment is solicited more strong 
 By my fast beating heart than by my head. 
 Yet deeply must I sound the oracle 
 Of God's own self in me, that I do right, 
 Nor evil expiation chance from wrong. 
 
 Ron. My love, I know that thy true heart is right. 
 
 Arl. My head gives license for the less; my heart 
 Is ever drawn to ways of Truth ; I break 
 My father's law in keeping mine. Blest breach! 
 Sweet rugged vale, so flanked, studded and set 
 With scented blooms and yet with scarped rocks! 
 
 Ron. {Embracing her.) 
 
 dearest heart, most sacredly I'll guard 
 All, that thou yieldest me for love! 
 
 Arl. Holy nativity of perfect love! 
 
 1 love, that is enough! 
 
 With panoply of love I shall go forth ! 
 What my heart teaches me I do! Thy will, 
 O Heart, be done on Earth, come good or ill! 
 
 Ron. My soul confirms thy choice with power and 
 love! 
 
 Arl. My life seems newly bloomed with this far 
 stride. 
 O let us love ! Most blessed is our love ! 
 
 Ron. O nought in this world doth repeat itself 
 So oft as love! {They embrace.) 
 
 Arl. Ronel, lovest thou me? 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 33 
 
 Ron. I love thee more than all the stars could say, 
 If every deep and silent heaven were filled 
 With pleadings of it ! 
 
 Arl. Dearest, the sea is not the sea, nor the 
 Broad sunset's glory perfect in my grace, 
 Lest I watch their sweet colors in thine eyes ; 
 Unite the earth's serenity with love ! 
 The mountains move my passionate heart for thee ; 
 The forests deep, avow my deeper love! 
 The voices of the meadows, trees and vales 
 Woo thee as I ! O holiest trinity. 
 Great Nature, Thou and I! 
 
 Ron. Ah, that is sweet but say some simple thing, 
 As this: 'tis thee I love, that is enough! 
 
 Arl. 'Tis thee, I love; 'tis thee alone I love! 
 
 Ron. O nothing is more coveted than that! 
 And I love thee ; ever and only thee ! 
 
 Arl. Love gives me peace and rest naught else can 
 give ! 
 
 Ron. And love's the only power by which I live! 
 
 Arl. Come quickly, thou impending blessed day, 
 In which from death to life we wing away ! 
 
 Ron. 'Twill be to-morrow morn we shall contrive; 
 Meet at North River pier, the number five, 
 The hour six; then, Ho! Love, for the sea. 
 And let our absence our best answers be ! 
 
 Arl. We will ! We will ! O new life, blessed, sweet ! 
 
 Ron. But now, adieu, dearest, 'till there we meet! 
 For I must go. My love, but one kiss more! 
 
 {Kisses her.) 
 
 Arl. Adieu, dearest, would that adieus were o'er! 
 
34 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Ron. O my impatience, balm of patience borrow! 
 
 Arl. And my heart beat as calm until the morrow ! 
 
 Ron. Adieus do linger as the winds of even! 
 
 Arl. Adieus with sorrow our sweet loves do leaven ! 
 
 Ron. Would I could stay to bridge the distance o'er, 
 Until the morrow when we part no more. 
 
 Arl. To part no more! Blest thought! with tears 
 mine eyes, 
 Fill up when my soul with no word replies ! 
 
 Ron. O last adieu! most last! beloved one, 
 Let future weal the present pain condone. 
 
 Arl. Adieu my tongue speaks, not my heart; adieu! 
 As sorrow falls on me, may fortune fall on you. 
 
 Ron. My fortune rises with the morrow's sun, 
 Let sorrow set before this day is done ! 
 Adieu! my Love. 
 
 Arl. Ronel! Once more adieu! {Sounds are heard.) 
 But listen, what sound is that? Some one comes. 
 {Enter Mr. and Mrs. Gavit. Mrs. Gavit hows to Mr. 
 Vane; speaks ^o Arline. Mr. Gavit engages Mr. 
 Vane in conversation^ 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Arline, I wish t' apologize to 3^ou 
 And Mr. Vane, for such unseemly deeds 
 At the club house, last night ; those, unfashioned in 
 Constant sobriety oft cloak themselves 
 In base emeutes where wine and women are. 
 
 Arl. There is no need to moralize on that, 
 Or tell to me your sorrow, for I know 
 The frequentness of such hilarity; 
 Your husband's most erratic waywardness; 
 Artistic leanings, sin's acute angles, 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 35 
 
 Refracted from life's larger ways; I know 
 
 The sensuous littleness of other lives 
 
 That graze upon these fallows, sparsely sown 
 
 With living's truer riches and I will {jor getting herself) 
 
 Now leave them, and forsake them evermore! 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Arline, do you mean that you will elope 
 With Ronel Vane? abandon this, your home? 
 
 Arl. O Monna, what have I said? O my tongue. 
 For my heart's sake, recall that spoken word! {passion- 
 ately) 
 O no, no, no! What was't so uttered then? 
 
 Ron. {Rushing over to Arline.) 
 Arline, what stirs you so, that you speak thus? 
 
 Arl. O leave me, dear, 'tis naught ; my tongue but 
 slipped 
 It's footing; all is well. 
 
 (Ronel retires to Mr. Gavit.) 
 
 Ah, no 'tis ill. 
 Mrs. Gav. Arline, my dear, be not so lured with 
 
 dreams 1 
 Arl. a dream! What dream? this — ^my nightmare 
 
 of grief ? 
 Mrs. Gav. I am acquainted muchly with the world, 
 So bear with me and sully not your life 
 With such a flight ; your friends await you here, — 
 Arl. My friends ! Such friends ! O let us speak no 
 more. 
 For you have not the art to probe my soul. 
 Would it could gape the wider for your sight , 
 Or that your wisdom bent more keenly in ! 
 So, soil not e'en what love we have, but go ! 
 Leave me. 
 
36 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Arline, you must not do it. 
 
 Arl. O go! 
 
 My life circles a different realm than yours 
 (Mrs. Gavit moves away; motions to Mr. Gavit; they 
 how and go out.) 
 
 Arl. The arcs of friendship must be on one plane; 
 One arc the longer, and the other less ; 
 The one more round, but both upon one plane. 
 
 Ron. Has that woman deterred you from your plan ? 
 Unbraced your firm resolve? 
 
 Arl. O little faith! 
 
 Would that my mother's woman's heart were here 
 To cull from mine this opening bud of life ; 
 This unfulfilled and mystic aim to grow ; 
 Pillow it on her soul and nurse it there ! 
 O peaceful haven, — ^well called sympathy. 
 
 Ron. My love, trust me! Love me! Wrap thyself 
 not 
 Within this gloom: the very creeping fringe 
 Of hesitation. Soon we shall away ! 
 
 Arl. To-morrow: I have said it; so 't shall be. 
 
 Ron. Again adieu! have faith in heaven above! 
 
 Arl. Our fractured parting's like afflicted love! 
 
 Ron. All things may be thus broken but our hearts, 
 When they are whole they mend all other parts ! 
 
 Arl. But O, mend not this parting, stay, my sweet. 
 
 Ron. Thou know'st my love, that we must part to 
 meet. 
 
 Arl. This most unwelcome and welcome adieu 
 Is sad and strange to those who love so true. 
 
 Ron. Love cannot always with it's pleasure bless, 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 37 
 
 But it ordains it's ill with tenderness! 
 Now I depart, this is my last adieu 
 
 Arl. Since I remain, my love shall go with you! 
 (Enter hurriedly Mr. Vardaman; having just come 
 from the city) 
 
 Var. Your last adieu? Then you had better in- 
 clude me in your farewell. 
 Arline, please leave us; I wish to confer with Ronel 
 
 awhile. (Arline leaves.) 
 Your last adieu! And have you, sir, when brought to 
 the bar of decision, after these weeks of courtship, 
 concluded your love in such a manner? 
 
 Ron. You are hasty with your inferences, Sir. I 
 have given neither my last adieu nor my answer. 
 I am merely following my impulses now. 
 
 Var. No answer yet? 
 
 Ron. None yet, for you will not even confer for 
 conciliation's sake. 
 
 Var. There shall be neither conference nor concilia- 
 tion over my charge — only a reply to it. Why, 
 young man, the world was made for answers ; yea 
 and nay; give and take, buy and sell; life is very 
 simple. 
 
 Ron. {Drawling indifferently.) O no, the old poet 
 said that this world was made for Caesar. Your 
 words do not prick me very keenly; my mind is 
 dulled with hesitancy. 
 
 Var. Well then, filter it out; your delay is longer 
 than a hexameter. 
 
 Ron. Aha! you remember something of poetics. 
 
38 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Var. I've the metric system of life in my head quite 
 snugly. I know the weights and measures of a man. 
 
 Ron. Men are mostly actors. Have you gripped a 
 gage on that theorem yet? 
 
 Var. I have of late, for watching you. 
 
 Ron. You converse in a circle, sir, for you ever come 
 back to me. 
 
 Var. That's my custom; I'm acquainted with the 
 best wheels of fortune; — mostly turbines and 
 rolling stock, — and I move around yours the quick- 
 est. I see the least fortune in it. 
 
 Ron. O you cannot girdle my circuit so easily, 
 Mr. Vardaman, 
 
 Var. Come, to the heart of this business; will you 
 answer me or not? Remember; there are but 
 three days that remain; six days shall you think; 
 the seventh, answer, if not before. Then my law 
 remorselessly plays the guillotine of either your 
 heart or head. 
 
 Ron. Ah, but three days more! After the sun has 
 risen thrice, what then? O sir, wist you well of 
 such a demand ? Let the fire chariot wheel up and 
 down the hill of heaven once, twice, thrice; then 
 must I know the heart of life's mystery ; discriminate 
 perfectly between right and wrong; cleave to the 
 good, shun evil; must know the will of truth and 
 transform it to a deed ; must tent the devil to the 
 quick with desertion, and all in three days! More 
 than mere impulse is needed for that. 
 Ah! me, gladly would I follow Mother Eve! Eat 
 of the tree of knowledge! 
 Why, man, have you lived to be a father and not 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 39 
 
 discovered that the very creaking hinge of life 
 is this doubt over right and wrong? Meditation, 
 judgment, hesitancy, fear, and action; what are 
 these but probes into the eternal problem, or es- 
 capes from its court but not its prison ? 
 O there is scarcely an abstraction in the language 
 but that its office is the same ! Yet you clothe me 
 with this net; thrust me upon the apex of forked 
 roads and say : find the right in the life problems I 
 make for you and do it in seven days. Ah! only 
 seven days for such vital judgment. 
 
 Var. You have lived much over a score of years; 
 you should have many precedents for your guidance. 
 
 Ron. O sir, there has been nothing like this! O to 
 know what to do, what not to do! The right, the 
 wrong, ah, that is wisdom. Why, sir, summon up 
 the sages for my council; from Confucius to the 
 Seven of Greece; from Plato to Epictetus, from 
 Aurelius to A'Kempis; from Poor Richard to Fra 
 Elbertus, and 'twould be seven days before you 
 could have their names writ down ! 
 Seven years before you had untangled their far- 
 rago of theories ! 
 
 But, behold! — if you had found what is fit for to- 
 day after the lapse of years, 'tis then that such 
 coin would be uncurrent, for the case, at that hour 
 would be 'sconced in new niches and what might be 
 fit now would then be fit no more. Believe me, 
 sir, life is such a process of confiscations ! — ^with or 
 without due procedure of law. Only truth has the 
 right of eminent domain. 
 
40 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Ah, but what is truth? And which is right: 
 Half Rome, Tertium Quid, the Other Half or Ca- 
 ponsacchi? And yet I'm dispatched to fetch this 
 Golden Fleece ; to steal the pot of gold from the base 
 of the rainbow's arch; transport it hither in seven 
 days! 
 
 O this sage business began with Mother Eve, and 
 it will not end with the Superman ! Would she had 
 preserved those apples or that her wisdom were in- 
 corps'd in her every child! 
 
 O man, be a good fellow! Disperse such com- 
 manded folly ! I feel th^t Love is the only eternal- 
 right after all, and all's well! Let us go our 
 wonted way and follow it! 
 
 Var. I cannot be confused with words, and I throw 
 no hat skyward on the hot breath of long and dis- 
 putable speeches, nor repeat, nor repeal my law, 
 despite you or the wise men. 
 
 Ron. But can I succeed where they cannot? 
 
 Var. Young man, your diffidence in judgment's 
 a part of your craft. 
 
 tlT However, chatter along and your folly will soon 
 turn your muse into a magpie without the help of 
 gods or sages. 
 
 Ron. Ha! My muse! that is my subliminal self; 
 God made it and He does not deal in such a meta- 
 morphosis. 
 
 Var. Your discourse does bear the plausible em- 
 phasis of doubt; suspended decision, but you must 
 bulwark your own judgment, not conjure up the 
 Solomons one by one, or the cerements of your will 
 shall be microscopic. 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. ■ 41 
 
 Ron. O sir, there is no answer I can give you now 
 
 in the manner you wish. 
 Var. That is a poor prologue to action. 
 Ron. Good sir, believe me, this problem pricks me; 
 body, soul and mind. It burdens me; compels my 
 thought, but carries no solution withal. 
 Var. You must be in collusion with the unknowable. 
 But have a shrewder care or you'll be in collision 
 with a certain manifested law of your acquaintance. 
 Ron. Such law has its hour of tyranny before its 
 ultimate senescence, but in that moment it enven- 
 oms the heart. 
 Var. If it acts merely on that, its orbit of evil will 
 
 be somewhat exclusive. 
 Ron. O let me go now to my own devices! I must 
 depart. I'm hungered for peace. You will not 
 uncharge this order or confer with me about it.? 
 Var. Never. 
 {Enter Arline hurriedly; she has heard the last question 
 and answer.) 
 Arl. O father for my sake, do make release! 
 See, my tears flow! My sorrow breaks my heart! 
 Uproots my joy; distempers mind and soul! 
 
 Var. My child, why do you thus intrude on us? 
 Is it my only pastime to refuse 
 All these successive and these allied pleas ? 
 
 Arl. Alas! and must my soft prayer swift rebound 
 Unto its maker? Father, thou dost force 
 Appeal to that thou dost not understand! 
 
 Ron. And with her hand in mine, I add my prayer; 
 
42 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Let live this bond of love ; rescind your law ; 
 Ephemeral man-made fetter, heartless rule! 
 
 Arl. Together we appeal ; O be thou touched 
 By our extremest prayer. 
 
 Var. Acquit me of entreaties that are vain. 
 My law has cumulated force and truth 
 Through many weeks. 'Tis given and 'twill stand. 
 A tree more easy parts the passionate wind 
 Than pleadings cleave my firmly welded will! 
 I leave you to your thoughts ; mark the last hour. 
 
 (Vardaman goes out angrily.) 
 (RoNEL and Arline look silently at each other a moment.) 
 
 {Enter Constance.) 
 
 Con. O why have you so angered father? 
 
 Arl. Charge us with nothing so superfluous. 
 Constance, leave us, but not so angrily. 
 
 (Constance goes out.) 
 
 Arl. Ronel, adventure-ripeness seizes me; 
 I'm in the rubiconic stream and am 
 A votary to risk for sweet love's sake. 
 O Spir't of love! sovereign and constant guide, 
 Grant power to those who challenge in thy name ! 
 What thou would 'st have me do, I will perform. 
 Ronel, depart now — Sunrise sign; pier five. 
 
 Ron. Adieu, Arline! O Life, let our plans thrive! 
 
 (Ronel goes out hastily; Arline watches him leave, then 
 she departs by the opposite door.) 
 
 Curtain. 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 43 
 
 ACT IV— Scene i. 
 Place. — Same as in last scene. 
 
 Time. — About seven o'clock on the morning of the 
 fourth day. 
 
 (Mr. Vardaman is seated on a chair, with a newspaper in 
 his hands; reading; he puts it down and rings a 
 bell. Enter the Butler.) 
 
 Please knock on my daughter's door; tell her that I wish 
 to see her immediately. (Butler does as bid; a 
 moment elapses; Vardaman contimies to read. But- 
 ler returns) 
 Butler. Your daughter is not to be found, sir 
 Her room is vacant, and its door was open. I can 
 not find her in the house. 
 Var. {Staring ivildly.) Not to be found? Do you 
 mean that ? 
 It cannot be ! Quickly ! call her sister ! O it cannot 
 
 be, O no! no! no! 
 Clandestine flight if they are gone! (Butler goes 
 out to do so; Vardaman paces the floor. Enter 
 Constance a moment later.) 
 Con. Father, what is the matter? 
 Var. Constance, your sister cannot be found. Do 
 
 you know where she has gone ? 
 Con. O! My sister fled! Escaped with Ronel! O 
 
 shame ! 
 Var. Seek her about the house. I had forbidden 
 her departure from these precincts for seven days. 
 Go in haste ; I fear she has eloped ! 
 
 (Constance goes out.) 
 
44 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Var. O that a father's love be treated thus; that 
 years of nurture should be crowned with hate ! 
 My child! what adder's ruthless fang abode unknown 
 in you, by which you claw me thus? O my useless 
 rage! {Remains silent a moment; Enter Constance 
 with Mrs. Gavit, whom she has called) 
 
 Con. Father, it is true; she has gone! She has fled 
 with Ronel. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. I had an accidental glimpse of this, when, 
 yesterday, she uttered "I will go." I fancied it! 
 Oh! what a shame, thus to requite a father's love, 
 and depose the sacred function of his house and law, 
 to attain a little goal! 
 
 Var. 'Tis a forbidden goal. But do you know where 
 they have fled? I will follow after them. They 
 shall not marry ! 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Where? As I live I think it must be 
 North Jersey shore. Arline and he have been there 
 often. I have heard them speak like this: "'Tis 
 such a romantic spot;" "what sublime retreats 
 for lovers;" "O that we were there," and kindred 
 things. 'Tis there they have gone, I would wager. 
 
 Con. It was but this spring they were there together 
 last. 
 
 Var. I will venture that risk to seek them, and 
 telegraph the police with proper descriptions, so I 
 shall have their aid. 
 
 {Rings hell; enter Butler.) 
 Have my small auto prepared immediately. Be 
 at the door in five minutes. Quickly, now, I tell 
 you, I brook no slowth in this matter. 
 
 (Butler goes out) 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 45 
 
 Lovers are not so clever in disappearances; they 
 accent their trails rather recklessly, and Vane has 
 forgotten to confiscate his paths. I know what 
 track walking is. 
 
 Beshrew their base designs ! It angers me that this 
 attempt be made to outgeneral my will. O this 
 eventful day! Ha! to escape a reply by flight! 
 To answer with elopement! What a retreat! 
 An ambuscade for destiny! A pitfall for my law! 
 Watch me destroy it. Then shall I see them 
 bend their knees for remission ! I shall bring just 
 woe into her heart no matter how complete it may 
 be with love, and a heavy blow on his scheming 
 pate though he juke it to the ground. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Mr. Vardaman, listen a moment ! It may 
 have been to Long Island. As oft I've heard them 
 speak of an enticing cove there; a promontory; 
 with lovely sand-dunes, near to Northport. But I 
 cannot advise. 
 
 Var. Mrs. Gavit, confound your alternatives. How 
 can a man, bent on my mission, wait on your 
 doubts? Woman, are you conniving with these 
 law breakers ? 
 
 Mrs. Gav. O believe me sincere, sir. I am as whole 
 hearted in your endeavor as you are angry over 
 theirs. 
 
 Var. I cannot listen to perhaps this; perhaps that. 
 I'll take the first; it is the more likely. {Enter the 
 Chauffeur.) 
 
 Ch. Mr. Vardaman, the small auto has broke its 
 sparker, sir. It cannot be mended for an hour. 
 
46 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Var. Gad! What united obstacles barricade my 
 will! Secure the larger one immediately. 
 
 (Chauffeur goes out) 
 {To Constance.) 
 Quickly, too, pen and paper. I'll fix my dispatch. 
 I'll send it to both places. Unfortunately, I can be 
 at only one of them. 
 (Constance procures them; Vardaman writes.) 
 
 Mrs. Gav. {To Constance.) This is a rough begin- 
 ning for the early hours. 
 
 Con. More sad than rough. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Methinks the 'end of it will be that. 
 
 Con. The disturbances of a day may be legion. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. My dear, do not be sad. Let us go to the 
 golf grounds, and play our little comedy on the 
 links. That will wear less on our hearts than on 
 the turf. {Enter the Chauffeur.) 
 
 Ch. The machine is ready, sir! {He hurries out.) 
 (Mr. Vardaman rushes out, with the dispatches in his 
 hand; says nothing to anyone.) 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Let us be off as quickly, but with more 
 gaiety. 
 
 Con. Not so quickly, indeed, but with more joy, if 
 possible. Wait a moment until he has gone. 
 {They listen a moment; puffs of the machine are heard 
 in the distance.) 
 
 Mrs. Gav. There! how the auto puffs like his 
 passion! Ah me! Sorry enough am I they have 
 eloped; but I can't cry over it, or compel a wrath 
 to scatter half my wits, like an angry man! 
 
 Con. Monna! He is my Father. 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 47 
 
 Mrs. Gav. And she : she is your sister. 
 
 Con. And Ronel: why, he may be my brother-in-law 
 
 now 
 
 Mrs. Gav. He's gone to war and capture for the day, 
 But leap our hearts ! O let us rove and 
 play! 
 Con. You are too deboniar in this trouble. 
 Mrs. Gav. Wherever there is trouble, I bring some 
 humorous hearts ease. Mine is a peculiar sympathy. 
 It is very adaptable, however. 
 Con. Adapt it to me, then, Monna. You did so 
 
 quite cleverly to father. I do feel this sorrow. 
 Mrs. Gav. Come, child, and with the livery of fun, 
 We'll deck ourselves until the day is done ! 
 Con. There's no sympathy in that. 
 Mrs. Gav. Your heart, Constance, is yet to be 
 taught by the world. Grow to my age and you'll 
 need sympathy from none. 
 Con. And those that need none, rarely give any. 
 Mrs. Gav. That flanks my nature on four sides, yet 
 constructs no offense; for I know myself as many 
 another. Let's end this, however. 
 Nibble at pleasure for the day and be 
 A liege to lawns, to jousts and jollity! 
 Con. I'm rather a liegess to pensiveness to-day. 
 Mrs. Gav. Pleasure's a potion; take its goblet shell, 
 Such liquid Lethe, shall thy heart pain 
 quell ! 
 Con. {Thoughtfully.) It had better be so. I'll go 
 with you, but let's breakfast first. 
 
48 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Then off together to the dimpled sward, 
 We tramp on trouble ; mirth, be our re- 
 ward! 
 
 {They go out arm in arm) 
 Curtain. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 Time. — About an hour and a half later than Scene I; 
 on the same morning. 
 
 Place. — A summer resort on the North Jersey coast. 
 
 (Arline and Ronel seated near the edge of cliffs that 
 overlook the sea. Hotels and cottages to the north; 
 a road on the landward side of them.) 
 
 Arl. O now I feel a peace within my breast. 
 To be with thee and watch the sea's unrest ! 
 'Tis so like what my soul was, — ^that is still; 
 How human is the sea, so good, so ill! 
 
 Ron. The ocean is, yet knows not to be kind, 
 Blesses and scourges like the senseless wind ! 
 
 Arl. How pleasant 'tis to muse by the sea side. 
 Let our thoughts ebb and flow as the great tide ! 
 
 Ron. Life is a sweeping tide of many waves! 
 Whilst work and love consume it at its flood, 
 Like many moods its billows rise and fall. 
 
 Arl. I have been thinking o'er the hour glass grains, 
 Confronted by the shores of sea and life. 
 Time hath more hours than the waste beach hath tides ', 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 49 
 
 Eternity more years than there are sands, 
 
 Yet neither hour glass grains, nor tides nor time, 
 
 Measure the deepest moment of our love. 
 
 Ron. Nor that old ocean, with unnumbered miles! 
 O sea! Thou tireless mother of many a tide, 
 Thine eyes are blue; thy face is wreathed in smiles! 
 Ten thousand years with lightness o'er thee glide ! 
 Still thy rough breakers clasp the barren shore. 
 Wildly the salt wind hasten to the land, 
 And still the silvered moon doth draw thee o'er 
 To hurl thy heaving pulse upon the strand ! 
 
 Arl. Ronel, sail not too far upon the deep, 
 For we must not embark thitherward now. 
 Think you the rectory is open yet ? 
 
 Ron. Nay, for 'tis scarce the hour for maids to stir, 
 Let us not trespass on the custom there, 
 How we stride over all the baser law ! 
 O what exuberance in leaping so ! 
 My happy soul, feel stronger, freer now! 
 
 Arl. It makes me peaceful and yet stronger too, 
 That you so joyfully discourse! Ronel, 
 Peace is Love's lintel, over which 'tis writ: 
 Abandon discord, ye who enter here! 
 Make love no cavatina for the nonce, 
 Compass thy life with its eternal strain ! 
 
 Ron. Arline, beyond that lintel we have passed. 
 New vistas of the heart create new life, 
 And new life holds expedients for its paths ; 
 Blest sequences unfold at every turn, 
 Devices, thoughts and shifts that Life procures 
 For those adventurous spirits that have faith, 
 
so THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Nor idly whimper of their fate. O Life, 
 Thou undiscovered country, from whose bourne 
 Few trav'lers pass rewarded with thy truth; 
 Laden with gems from thine own treasure house, 
 Give us thy light, that we climb step by step 
 All thy profuse degrees ; widen the scope 
 Of souls; lessen the needed shrift, until 
 We feel our pulses beat in time with God's ! 
 
 Arl. What omen but desire for truth and love 
 Doth usher our two souls upon this quest ? 
 Ah! this is life, with thee to love and grow! 
 And now I do begin to live^ I know. 
 
 {They remain silent; looking seaward; RoneVs hand 
 clasped over Arline's.) 
 
 Scene 3. 
 Place and Time the same. 
 {Enter two policemen; they approach from the south.) 
 
 ist Pol. Look you there! That is the lady! Move 
 carefully! Stop! Let me read over again the 
 description. Ah! she matches it as if she were built 
 for it. Now we have her. 
 
 2nd Pol. 'Tis a shoime to front so foine a girrl with 
 such a potent love-disturber! What if they have 
 eloped? Oi wanst did the same. Let us raypoort 
 we have not found thim. What '11 the lootenant 
 know av it ? 
 
 ist Pol. I have not heard O 'Toole speak like that 
 since I've been on the force with him. And it's 
 vou, is it, who'd let a cooing brace of lovers bestride 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 51 
 
 the state law? The girl is tinder age. She must 
 be run in. Do you hear that ? 
 
 2nd Pol. Ha! Ha! you remoind me av the stone 
 crusher on the road back av us. But 'tis they that 
 does remoind me av me sweetharrt Mary O'Rourke! 
 'Tis we that did kiss the Blarney stone togither, 
 and has had good luck iver since. 
 
 ist Pol. O get a little ginger into your reminiscent 
 heart ! Along with me and help pinch her. 
 
 2nd Pol. O'il not that! They hav killed nobody and 
 hav stole nothing but each others hearts, and that's 
 what they'r allowed be the worrd av God. They 
 hav stole away, Oi do know. But what's that? 
 I very hour does that and 'tis thin we raypoort, 
 and what's done? Execute the law upon the hour? 
 Well no; for 'tis gone before our lazy magisthrate 
 can write a summons. 
 
 ist Pol. Or a town constable the likes of you serve 
 one. Forward with me to arrest this girl. 
 
 2nd Pol. Fur what ? Can't yez see they'r keepin the 
 pace loike tin angels? Lit thim alone. Would the 
 rest av the town abide so well, we'd lower the 
 tax rate. Let me look if you know a girrl when 
 she's described. Let me hav the poiper. 
 
 ist Pol. Why man, I could cut onions and count 
 their rings without blinkin; you need have no fear 
 in risking me in judgment on this evidence. 
 
 2nd Pol. Let me hav the poiper. 
 
 ist Pol. Well, take it. {Gives it to him.) 
 
 2nd Pol. {Peruses it; glances back and forth from it 
 to Arline.) That is the right girrl, and the more 
 
52 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 is me hearrt touched. But look here, man, this 
 order is one that does restrain marriage, what do 
 yez say to that ? 'Tis such things as is against the 
 law av the counthry. 
 
 ist Pol. O 'Toole, jade me no more with your Celtic 
 sophistry. It is our affair to complete orders; 
 to execute the law. 
 
 2nd Pol. Ah! but not to execute luvers' bliss. Oi 
 can't wurrk fur that ; O'il resign firrst. 
 
 ist Pol. Don't you know that her father won't 
 allow her to marry ; the girl is under age. 
 
 2nd Pol. 'Tis a pity fur the lass, to be under age 
 and under the law too. Whoop ! it do come down 
 hivyy. 
 
 ist Pol. I am going to speak to her now. 
 
 2nd Pol. Wait, man, you'll exceed the speed limit! 
 Wait ! Oi can't stand fur this. O man, let the law 
 go! It do not say execute sweet luv, but that's 
 what you'll do. Let's pass by on the other side. 
 
 ist Pol. O'Toole, sift this order out of your sinti- 
 ment and help me execute the law, or I'll do the 
 pinchin alone, and thin report this affair and 'tis 
 you who'll be walkin the streets for work. 
 
 2nd Pol. Begorrah, man, yez'll not dotheloikes av 
 that? This is a deep worrld. Oi can't penethrate 
 it, but Oi gets me bread and butter a'doin its will 
 and Oi'l not burden me withers with poverty by me 
 semi-offishal sympathy with luvers or knaves. 
 Whoop! but 'tis doomsday when sweet hearrts be 
 parted ! 
 But Oi too, hav to come in judgment now. Yis, 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. S3 
 
 'tis we that is after thim. Forward! {Moves two 
 steps) Hold there! Not Oi. {Draws hack) Oi hav 
 not the manners fur one the loikes o'her! 
 
 I St Pol. Too much heart ; too little boldness, O 'Toole. 
 {He steps forward a little when Vardaman's auto- 
 mobile whizzes down the road from the opposite direc- 
 tion) 
 Ron EL and Arline turn around suddenly; they com- 
 prehend the situation) 
 
 Arl. O Ronel ! Ronel ! deliver me of this ! 
 Help! I faint! {She swoons) 
 
 (Ronel catches her; lays her on the grass; fans her) 
 
 Var. {After he has jumped from the auto; to Ronel.) 
 You are a dullard knave! That it should come to 
 this! O that I should expostulate to one who 
 thieves my daughter; rebuffs my law, and then 
 makes off with the prize of crime! Half madness 
 and half art never did succeed together. 
 {To the police. Ronel continues attention to Ar- 
 line.) Men, why have you been so idle here? I saw 
 you halt on the brink of action. I cannot but re- 
 buke such hesitancy. But, come now; I make a 
 levy on you; pocket your impotence and unwrap 
 your will; help me in this work. I and my chauf- 
 feur shall lift her into the auto. You guard the 
 young man. Come Tim! (Chauffeur gets out 
 to help) 
 
 Var. {To Ronel.) Is she still faint ? 
 
 Ron. Do not speak to me; touch neither of us. 
 
 Var. I have neither the will nor the art to bandy 
 word with you, young man. Officers, this girl is 
 
54 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 daughter. You hold a paper describing her person. 
 Guard his madness while we move her. 
 
 Ron. {To the police.) Men, if there be aught of 
 manhood in you, go your way. This girl is mine 
 and I am hers. Leave us. We are as high above 
 his law as yonder clouds above the sea. Ah! but 
 you cannot understand this. Believe it and go. 
 
 {To Vardaman.) 
 O sir, only my heart beseeches you; my hatred 
 spurns you! 
 
 Var. Officers, you have heard me speak. 
 
 Ron. The immobility qf your spirit shames even 
 nature. 
 {Officers approach Ronel; they stand at his right and 
 left. Vardaman and the Chauffeur raise Arline ; 
 she is partly revived; they carry her into the auto. 
 They arrange her comfortably, then seat themselves, 
 ready to ride away) 
 
 Ron. O vile and villainous hands ! and callid heart ! 
 Do you not know it is commanded thou shalt not 
 steal; neither thy neighbor's ox nor thy daughter's 
 love? 
 (Ronel makes an attempt to approach the auto, but the 
 police prevent him) 
 You ignorant executors of this brutal law ! Yet it 
 is not you, but this prohibition has gained footing 
 in you. 
 
 Var. {Speaking from the auto) Young man, a gar- 
 rulous frenzy and savage madness has footing in 
 you. But listen: I will keep my word. You 
 break my law. I recreate it even to this extent: 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 55 
 
 the seven days are not yet gone. You have two 
 more for meditation; report on the seventh, at my 
 office, not at my home. Be not seen there again 
 until I permit you. That is all. 
 
 {He gives a sign to the chauffeur to start. They ride off.) 
 Ron. I will have her! I will! O gracious God, 
 
 Grant me this boon! You filching rascal, stop! {Darts 
 after them; police stop him.) 
 
 Stop thief ! Stop thief ! Most damnable thief, stop ! 
 
 Must my tongue curl and mold the plastic air 
 
 To be thus shattered on unheeding ears ? 
 
 My passion, mounting on the steps of Heaven 
 
 Be driv'n upon the dais of defeat? 
 
 Oh ! all my pregnant joy has birthed me nought 
 
 To stay this confiscation of my dream! 
 
 How fixed the sea, the earth, the cliffs, the sky! 
 
 But how disjoint this thing — forbidden love! 
 
 How my fawning desire doth follow them I 
 
 Life ! thou'rt buffeted with swiftest change, 
 
 And sweetest peace, thou are surcharged with the 
 
 Most dire of all vexations, stolen love! 
 
 I would asunder tear these husks of hope 
 
 And gain the inward blessing ! 
 
 ist Pol. And what is it that he says? 
 2nd Pol. Faith, Oi do not understand him. 
 ist Pol. Nor I ; does he speak to us? 
 2nd Pol. If't be so, he'll hav to put it in our tongue. 
 Ron. {To Police.) Leave me. Your work is done. 
 You are faithful servants, no doubt. Impersonal 
 masters as little as some others, consider broken 
 hearts, Go! 
 
S6 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 ist Pol. Lets be off! (Police depart) 
 
 Ron. {After a moment's meditation.) 
 But two more days for meditation left ! 
 Yet many hours for deeds; alas what deed? 
 I lunged one blow and the world parried it. 
 But I will lunge again at its fiat heart, 
 Sometime, some way, and pierce it through and through! 
 My Love, I must have thee, but what base price 
 Such contract opes upon! What barren moor 
 Is praised in challenge of my richer loam ! 
 What falser life would cozen me to it. 
 Alloy my love with spirit of the mart ; 
 Open the postern gate to heart's desire, 
 And trim my life to Golf Club house ideals, 
 Whilst a particular Providence confines 
 With base and altitude my soul's ambition. 
 Which must be true ! An unseen Patron gives 
 This life. He knows, He loves and will have care! 
 O thou sweet patronage of love, and thou 
 Blest pilotage of law, whose diadems 
 Crown every destiny! The human will 
 Redoubles all its strength on that which seeks 
 To blunt or mar their badge of consummation. 
 O Love, this day thou shalt revert to me 
 For aye — complete, not fragmentary be! 
 
 (RoNEL goes out.) 
 Curtain. 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 57 
 
 Scene 4. 
 Time. — Early evening of the same day. 
 
 Place. — In the garden at Mr. Vardaman's home. 
 A five foot buff brick wall extends around it; 
 bushes, shrubbery, etc., planted about. The gar- 
 dener is on watch at the gate; sits there. Enter 
 the Chauffeur. 
 
 Ch. What are you sitting here for? 
 
 Gar. It be for to guard this gate and to look after 
 
 things. 
 Ch. To have a care for those who are after things, 
 
 hey? 
 Gar. You do be right. After Mr. Vane in partic'lar. 
 Ch. What is he up to now? 
 Gar. He would like to beclimin up to Miss Arline's 
 
 window there. 
 Ch. Rats! he's got water on his plush heart; he 
 
 can't raise a tuft of it. His spunk has lost its heat ; 
 
 he poured it on the air as we rode away. 
 Gar. You do be figurin wrongly on him. I ken the 
 
 chap. (He stands up.) 
 
 He's within a radiance of a hundred yards of this 
 
 gate. And 'tis me that has had impervious orders 
 
 to stay here and watch for him; 'tis me that will 
 
 stand by them too. 
 Ch. Do you think they will keep the rain off you? 
 Gar. What will keep the rain off me ? 
 Ch. Your impervious orders. 
 Gar. Ah! You be a smart chap, though your face 
 
 be grimy. Go to your wheel house ! 
 
58 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Ch. Yes, and you wait here till dark. Keep your 
 
 eye cocked for the consternations. Vane's coming 
 
 down that way ; he'll not come in by the gate. 
 Gar. My eye on what ? 
 Ch. On the stars in the sky. 
 Gar. Ah! 'tis your head that needs the airin. Tie 
 
 it to a kite tail. It's light enough. Give it an 
 
 excursion this summer evenin. 
 Ch. You're ingenious for a grass cutter. But tell 
 
 me, old wag, if I may so test your wit; if a kite 
 
 is a carter, when is a ship a'hoy? 
 Gar. It be too late in the day to be grubbin at 
 
 riddles. 
 Ch. Well, I'll tell you. A ship is a'hoy when it's 
 
 hailed. 
 Gar. It be a'hoy when it's hailed? 
 Ch. Yes. 
 Gar. And how do you know what's doin at sea; 
 
 whether its hailed or snowed? 
 Ch. Whoop! Old turf-scratcher ! I can gambol 
 
 with your wit, like a breeze with a barley field. 
 Gar. Ah, it be time for you to be movin away from 
 
 here. 
 Ch. I judge it be too dark for you to be peering into 
 puzzles. 
 
 (He sings) 
 
 O at the gate the gardener stands, 
 
 The butler by the door, O! 
 
 The little Miss doth wring her hands, 
 
 And Vane is full of sorrow! 
 
 {Moves out slowly as he sings) 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 59 
 
 O we are watching those who weep, 
 And who away would flee O! 
 Ah! let them gallop, let them leap, 
 I'll catch them with my auto! 
 {The gardener sits down again; in a moment falls asleep.) 
 
 Scene V. 
 
 Place and Time the same. 
 
 (Enter Ronel at the opposite end of the garden, having 
 jumped over the wall. He moves stealthily toward 
 the house; picks up some gravel, throws it at Arline's 
 window, where a light hums low. After the second 
 one strikes it, the window is slowly opened and 
 Arline looks forth) 
 
 Kv.'L. Ronel! {Buries her head in her hands and 
 
 weeps) 
 Ron. Arline! {She raises her head) 
 Arl. I had expected you to come hither. 
 Ron. I come, my Love, to go again with thee ! 
 Arl. O Ronel ! would that such could safely be ! 
 Ron. O haste! and come thou in the garden here. 
 Arl. I come to thee, but cannot haste, my dear. 
 {She closes the window; Ronel retires into a shadow. 
 
 A moment later Arline, clad in a white garment^ 
 
 crosses the lawn slowly; they meet and embrace each 
 
 other.) 
 Ron. O Love! wild passion mutines in my breast! 
 Until thou'rt mine I shall not be at rest ! 
 
6o THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Arl. I am so weak with sorrow and this blow, 
 I can but weep, scarcely move to and fro! 
 
 Ron. O how this brooding passion from my breast 
 Leaps up into my throat upon those words ! 
 Distemp'ring bitterness of worsted love 
 Doth fan rebellion. 
 
 Arl. Feel not so, my dear. 
 
 Thou soothing night, whose calm and dark are sweet, 
 With flooding stillness, ease his fretted soul! 
 
 Ron. O let us go again! 
 
 Arl. How can it be? 
 
 I have been tortured since my home coming ; 
 This life doth crush me and my spirit faints 
 At such immediate suggestion here. 
 I can't compel its dash away so soon. 
 
 Ron. O Love, what can we do? What answer now? 
 
 what will satisfy my passions twain? 
 
 Arl. Rather than forfeit you the older one, 
 Let memory of me be fellowship, 
 For I do love thy work as I love thee ; 
 I, be thy silent guide, — ^that were my life; — 
 Th' advance of aspiration thou cans't temper, 
 For mine the sacrificial failure is. 
 A decomposed beam's most beautiful. 
 And sorrow storied life's most hued with truth! 
 
 Ron. Ah, such can never be, Arline, 
 This double love I never can forgo ! 
 
 1 can't surrender and will not deceive ! 
 
 Arl. O! I do love thee; love what thou dost love! 
 Ron. Yon moon so new; — a crescent basin that 
 Hath scooped by a celestial alchemy, 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 6i 
 
 It's silver from the sea of golden light, — ■ 
 
 Is but a brilliant bow whose latticed borne 
 
 Obeys the orbs own bend ; so like is Love ! 
 
 Thou art the gold light ; silver I ; thou dost 
 
 Enchant me to a wond'rous life ; my heart 
 
 Were else immured and cloistered in the dark! 
 
 Thy love and soul are constant like the sun, 
 
 But I am mewed anon in doubt and strife. 
 
 O Love, for freedom, peace of heart and thee, 
 
 I'd hurl the earth beyond Alcyone! 
 
 We'd whirl in airy orbits 'round the sun. 
 
 And live to love, and love to live 'till life were done ! 
 
 Arl. Ah, dear, thou dost inspire my heart with 
 power ! 
 Let go the base world, what need we of it? 
 But ! its days fly fast ! Only two more, 
 And then the sev'nth! Dearest, my wearied head 
 Doth downward bow, but my heart doth look up ! 
 O God, help me devise! I shall prevail 
 Upon my father yet again ! 
 
 Ron. O may 
 
 Thy spirit be moved with power ; agile thy mind ; 
 Thine effort quick with living frtiit ! He has 
 Denied me interview 'till the last day. 
 
 Arl. I give thanks to my maker that my tears 
 Have not yet seared my native spring of hope ! 
 
 Ron. O! that hope's crystal drops to grief should be 
 A tributary of whatever kind! 
 
 Arl. a new resolve dispels an old lament. 
 To-morrow by appeal and love, again 
 I'll test his obd'rate will, and seek to stem 
 His ever-deepening current of intent 
 
62 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Ron. O fare you well in that! 
 
 Arl. Thy spir't of love 
 
 Is so creative of new life in me, 
 That I will bear the pain to try this hope. 
 
 Ron. My love, thou art more brave than I. 
 
 Arl. Farewell! 
 
 I must retire or I renew alarm. 
 
 Ron. Farewell! Too soon commimion ends with 
 thee, 
 For our probation is its liberty. 
 I am a beggar for the alms of love. 
 Thou art the angel I solicit ot ! 
 
 Arl. {Putting her arms about his neck.) 
 I'm not the giver; love, like wind, doth sway 
 Where'er it listeth; heart finds heart that way! 
 Mine hath found yours ; there is no sweeter spell, 
 This kiss is signet of my all ; farewell ! 
 
 {She kisses him.) 
 
 Ron. O thy warm hand, may it be near me ever ! 
 
 Arl. And thy true heart, may it be broken never! 
 
 Ron. How hard to let thy hand slip from me, dear! 
 
 Arl. How sad that thou cans't not be always near! 
 
 Ron. O now farewell! and fare-thee-well, my love! 
 
 Arl. Farewell! lift up thy heart to Heaven above! 
 (Arline slowly moves aivay two or three steps, as if hesitat- 
 ing to go. RoNEL speaks; she stops.) 
 
 Ron. My Love, thou art so near and precious, stay! 
 More hapless we ma}^ part the seventh day ! 
 
 Arl. Ah, let the newer hope sustain thee best, 
 Believe in it ; hope ever feedeth rest ! 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 63 
 
 Ron. Thoti angel wandering upon the earth, 
 God sent thee here to give to love its birth ! 
 
 Arl. He who has placed me here may take away, 
 Since I have burdened love with much affray . 
 
 Ron. Only thy love, that discord, can undo ; 
 Heaven gave thee love, earth puts its thorn in you 
 
 Arl. Earth is God's footstool ; I am at His foot ; 
 Who would grow upward, first must find a root ! 
 
 Ron. Ah, Love how brave and calmly thou dost meet 
 Man's insults thrown about His holy feet! 
 
 Arl. Ronel, my dear, I must go now; farewell! 
 
 Ron. Thy will be done; I shall not more rebel. 
 ( Arline slowly recrosses the lawn; disappears in the house. 
 Ronel, left alone, after a moment's hesitation, moves 
 as far from the house as possible, then stops.) 
 
 Ron. {Aloud to himself.) 
 Love! Love! Divinest passion! Paragon 
 Of earthly joys, O lure more prosperously 
 Henceforth! Fret not my soul with conflicts vain, 
 That will unman me from new enterprise ! 
 This caprioling contest doth progress 
 Nowither! Hour by hour, day after day. 
 The glinting sands laugh at me as they fall! 
 As he, — her father, — fleers and mocks! 
 
 (A slight pause.) 
 As flutter white wings of the stripling dove, 
 So beat the pennons of my double love ! 
 With but one lode-star for my future life 
 I can, indeed, but half compass its strife! 
 Shall one star beam be all my soul light now, 
 
64 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 For me a facet flash of truth enow ? 
 
 The wraith of Love be lost in air ; my bride 
 
 Be but my holy quest and none beside? 
 
 Is my love laic only and my quest 
 
 Above all other love, the love the best? 
 
 Ah, no ! the paths of love never decline 
 
 Into such twilight where it cannot shine ! 
 {Another slight pause. Beginning in a different mood.) 
 
 That's monologue enough. Would that her father 
 were here ; zounds ! my mood would make a pas- 
 sionate double of it with him ! 
 
 Ah! what is the profit of such soliloquy? Does it ac- 
 complish anything? Fie! 'Tis scarcely the fore- 
 runner of a deed ! Hardly a prologue to conclusions. 
 'Tis but an extension of suspense. Then avaunt! 
 Away with it! Ah, but I cannot! 'Tis the 
 loquacity of loneliness; the loquacity of indecision 
 and of despair! I speak to myself; myself beholds, 
 thinks, cries aloud, but does not answer or solve! 
 O give me such a soliloquy that shall, with its 
 resource arouse the world! What shall I do? 
 But two days are left. Prompt discovery? How? 
 Mould invention to a noble figure and a mighty 
 deed? Alas! How? What then? Zounds! What 
 is man that life should puzzle him so in an age 
 without oracles or auguries? 'Tis easier to defy 
 fate in these times than of yore, but doubly hard 
 to quicken solutions of its riddles. Ah! how lonely 
 is he who wanders anywhere, or in any way! O 
 God! thou who hast given life, give light! 
 {Pauses a moment.) 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 65 
 
 Once more, O Greater Will, I cry to Thee, 
 And come to seek Thy way and not mine own! 
 O, I have seen the spring buds burst like Hope; 
 The summer wither and the autumn bring 
 To them the crimson flush presaging death! 
 In swifter sequence, seasons of my Hope 
 Have undulated through my travailed soul! 
 Not in the leaf's sev'n months, but in one day 
 Doth it resolve and wither. Give me shrift 
 From shrouding sin, — ^the winding sheet of will. 
 That veers and lapses from its enterprise! — 
 My diffident and yet undaunted soul, 
 Translate thy Hope to levels of thy Love ! 
 Heaven speaks ; then Earth ; my soul's the node wherein 
 Their segmentary currents meet; I gain 
 The conflict, lose the harmony! Come Sleep! 
 Thou blest and temp 'ring truce between my heart 
 And the rude world! Thy fruitful harvest plant 
 O in thy fleeting tenure may my soul. 
 Lie fallow of its fear, its doubt, its dole! 
 {He stands silent a moment; looks up at Arline's win- 
 dow, then quietly disappears in the shrubbery, and 
 leaves the garden the way he entered.) 
 
 Curtain. 
 
66 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 ACT V— Scene i. 
 
 Time. — About seven o'clock on the morning of the fifth 
 
 day. 
 Place. — In the reception room of Mr. Vardaman's 
 home. 
 (Mr. Vardaman is sitting in an arm chair; he reads the 
 morning paper.) 
 Var. {Aloud.) 
 Missouri Pacific; 98 J; Mo. K. and T., 36I; Wabash, 
 2ii; (Whistles.) U. S. Leather 13. Ooh! 
 
 t {Enter Arline.) 
 
 Arl. Father, what troubles you? 
 Var. Only two things 
 
 In all the world; some of these lowering stocks, 
 And then your wicked escapade and flight ; 
 Infatuation for a dreaming youth. 
 
 Arl. So, such things limn the orbit of your thought ? 
 Var. They do. 
 
 Arl. I would it circled still more wide. 
 
 Var. I wish so too ; now if that Wabash stock — 
 Arl. Ah! I did not mean that. 
 Var. What was't you meant? 
 
 Arl. Father, I wish that your life might include 
 Something of mine; O give it sympathy! 
 
 Var. For your attachment unto Ronel Vane? 
 Arl. Yes. 
 
 Var. To foster that would broaden my life? 
 Arl. It would. 
 
 Var. Humph! he will not accept the terms. 
 And I knew that when they were made to him ; 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. (fj 
 
 Made, that I might foreclose his aims, because 
 In truth, they always had offended me. 
 
 Arl. Father, be kind and wiser; release him! 
 
 Var. {Rising from his chair.) Hush! 
 
 Arl. I promised him to make this last appeal. 
 
 Var. Hush! I command you! Hush! Do not 
 present 
 That foolish plaint again, never again. 
 
 Arl. O God! what now? (She weeps.) 
 
 Var. Water your pretence with tears! 
 
 Nought stays the execution of my will. 
 
 Arl. O father, only once again I say it, 
 I do appeal for him but once again! 
 
 Var. O my unmannered child, you have expelled 
 All true authority; absolved yourself 
 From my protecting pale of household law ; 
 You have essayed elopement; wov'n a jest 
 A scoff of my desire — 
 
 Arl, O father, rend 
 
 My heart no more with these untruthful words ! 
 
 Var. You have confronted my parental care, 
 My wisdom with perversity and sneers ; 
 And you have sinned th' unpardonable sin, 
 My child, against these years of fatherhood; 
 You have fall'n mad o'er this emotion of love, 
 Whilst any man who's gazed with master eye 
 Both port and starboard, o'er the sea of life 
 Discovers that such love doth fluctuate 
 Most Hke the commonest wave! Now hush! I know, 
 And therefore I command; leave me in peace. 
 The seven days will soon expire; now go! 
 (He resumes his paper.) 
 
68 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Arl. Leave you ! O would that I could leave you 
 now! 
 Remove that guard; I'll make a triple peace, 
 Yours, Ronel's, mine! This is my father's house, — 
 A hideous torture room, where hope and love 
 Are rafted on a rack; a prison cave 
 For my aspiring soul! O this new teen 
 Doth tear my over-burdened heart more than 
 The old! 
 
 Var, I tell you hush! 
 
 Arl. You frighten me! 
 
 Sometimes my breath slips i so I clutch for it; 
 You know the weakness of my heart. 
 
 Var. You will 
 
 Dismiss that fainting proxy in two days. 
 And then your tear-lapped eyes will dry again. 
 
 Arl. O father, I have asked for love, but thou 
 Hast hurled at me a stone to crush my soul ! 
 O my breath! (Clutches for it; weeps.) 
 
 Var. Child, raise your head; cease this show. 
 
 Arl. O release him! release him! 
 
 Var. Damn you ! hush ! 
 
 {He walks rapidly from the room. Arline remains with 
 
 her head bowed; Constance enters a moment later.) 
 
 Con. Arline, father is angry; you are sad; 
 Tell me what cause there is for these new tears ? 
 
 Arl. Ah, no; it will suffice you nothing, dear. 
 
 Con. Then let me speak for him. 
 
 Arl. O speak no more; 
 
 This is a time my over -troubled mind 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 69 
 
 Is truly uncreative of dissent. 
 I am so faint! 
 
 (Constance starts forward to help her.) 
 Resources of my heart and head are gone, 
 And my poor will is limp ; too acquiescent. 
 
 Con. My sister, let our father rule your will. 
 
 Arl. Let me not hear that name! leave; speak no 
 
 more! 
 Con. My sister, you should have done his command. 
 
 Arl. O wicked words! leave me! leave me! my 
 
 breath ! 
 
 I cannot get it. O help! {She faints.) 
 
 Con. {Helps her.) 
 O my pale sister, awake ! 
 
 Curtain. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 Time. — Morning of the seventh day. 
 Place. — Same as in last scene. 
 {Present, Arline who reclines on a lounge.) 
 Arl. To keep the face fresh when the heart is torn, 
 And hold the heart fresh when the face is worn, 
 O that is life, and that would be my. part, 
 Could I perform it with a better art ! 
 
 {Enter Constance and Mrs. Gavit.) 
 Con. Arline, here's Monna who would comfort you. 
 Arl. Monna, my dear, 'tis kind indeed, but we 
 Are distanced in our souls, — a spanless space, — 
 Each from the other. You cannot comfort me; 
 Alas! you cannot, do not understand. 
 
70 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. I understand it all, Arline, be brave; 
 Endure distress awhile; sorrow will flee. 
 
 Arl. O that angers me! why excite me thus? 
 
 Con. Arline, be calm. 
 
 Arl. O leave me! both of you! 
 
 We are as far apart as earth and sun 
 When at aphelion. Go! I beg you, go! 
 Do not compel this weakening strife! 
 
 Con. Monna, 
 
 Let us depart. 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Good bye, Arline. 
 
 (Constance and Mrs. Gavit go out.) 
 
 Arl. This is the seventh day; 'tis said that God, 
 Toil worn, rested on it; but not as I. 
 I would that I might emulate His calm, 
 Nor be thus tremored with convulsive thought! 
 
 why must our loves welter in this blast, 
 This tenant of our hearts be dispossessed. 
 And Heaven receive injunction from the Earth 
 To hush the blending melodies of love ? 
 
 Love brought me into life; O may it show 
 Its saving power within this misted gloom! 
 {She pauses; enter Ronel stealthily; cautiously looking 
 about him.) 
 Ron. Arline! My love, Arline! 
 Arl. Ronel! Ronel! {They embrace.) 
 
 (Butler, unseen, peers in at Ronel.) , 
 Ron. {Beside the lounge; holding her hand.) 
 
 1 overflow with love; it presses tears 
 
 From sleepless eyes; urges the quickened pulse; 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 71 
 
 Transports the heart to raptured silentness 
 Of perfect joy ! {Kisses her.) 
 
 Arl. Such joy is mine as thine, but oversoon 
 Burdened with foes, it lacks its ecstacy. 
 
 Ron. You have resorted to the last request? 
 
 Arl. I have; it has availed nothing but wrath. 
 
 Ron. Merciful God ! that man thou ma3^est spare 
 But I will not ! 
 
 Arl. Ronel, what do you mean? 
 
 Ron. But this : that we must fiee upon the minute. 
 I have watched hereabouts for hours this morn, — 
 As in the hours of the two yesterdays ; — 
 I've seen your father and your sister go, 
 And Monna, too; th' instant the guard relaxed 
 His watch, herein I sprang. O let us fiee! 
 
 Arl. That sweet enticement chains my spirit to it ; 
 Its risk and labor at this time would cause 
 Collapse of faculty and flesh. O wait, 
 'Till guards deposed are and life more strong, 
 For I must now have peace or I shall die. 
 
 Ron. Love's dreaming waits on no contingency, 
 Its consummation hangs on that alone. 
 
 Arl. Rather upon my strength. O I must rest 
 Awhile on life's swift changes as the air, 
 Pillowed upon the peaceful sea doth yield 
 Unto its every tremor! 
 
 Ron. Ah! I fear 
 
 His craftiness ; his prison plans for you ; 
 His watch on me and his impetuous purpose 
 Bulwarked by helpers and the current coin. 
 Inviolate separation will attain. 
 
72 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Arl. Ronel, I fear the same. O come thou close 
 This little while that yet remains 
 
 Ron. O Love, 
 
 These six dark days have fled! Within such span 
 God made the heaven and earth; I have done naught 
 But well nigh lose my gear on half my life ! 
 
 Loves! conjoint be and confederate! 
 Life! teach me yet to be retentive of 
 This sweet captivity of double love ! 
 
 Arl. Ronel; arraign your faith. My love's not lost. 
 When woman's heart speaks thus, though distance, time, 
 Or death then interpose their bitter wedge, 
 Love presses through interstices; through airs, 
 Through prison walls ; over the seas of space, 
 With unseen power and port to seek the heart 
 It craves. O God! how can love fail? 
 
 Ron. Blessed soul! 
 
 The soul that gives assurance of a truth ! 
 There is and can be naught of failure in 
 Either of loves; my soul is seasoned with 
 That verity, ripened these seven days. 
 How fitly built with law is life ! The world 
 May deem my thought and action strange and null ; 
 Such vaunted judgment is untimely plucked 
 From due gestation in the house of life ; — 
 
 1 fail? but as the blind tribe think it so. 
 
 Arl. Whatever comes to me, live out your soul. 
 Ron. My love, I will; your voice and its shall guide. 
 Arl. Love is the lode-star of the universe. 
 Ron. O sacred guides, — ^these holy voices twain! 
 Can Love dissemble or prescribe a lie, 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 73 
 
 Mask in its truthful lure a treacherous hope ? 
 Can Inspiration conjure Flattery 
 T' allure the soul upon ambition's way? 
 The inmost heart cajole the most high God ; 
 Or Deep call falsely unto Deep ? O nay, 
 Not ev'n in all forever! 
 
 Arl. Oh! hold that faith! 
 
 Whatever comes, fuse it more strong with life! 
 One saith that the old orders ever change; 
 That God fulfils himself in many ways. 
 Would this strange new fulfilment within me 
 Were past I That each flint arrow from the bow 
 Had sprung; the quiver sealed; each tender wound 
 With unction eased! O Love! still blessed Love, 
 Thou hast not shielded me from each keen frost, 
 But I have lived thine every law and learned 
 To live because I've learned to love! 
 
 Ron. O sweetest soul! I am inebriate 
 With sorrow and with love for thee. 
 
 Arl. I hear 
 
 The music of life's interlude sweep low. 
 Like murmurs of a gently fretted harp. 
 Whose melting melodies would bring me peace! 
 
 Ron. Arline, be not so sadly prophetic. 
 
 Arl. To live for love would be my highest joy. 
 To live without it were the basest life. 
 
 Ron. Love can be ours yet, Arline, have hope! 
 
 Arl. Since my heart is so robbed of what it craves, 
 The very organ's tainted by the theft ; 
 It rises in my breast betimes, seizes 
 My breath ; this factious life doth make me weak. 
 
74 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Ron. Wait a few days, for then I shall relume 
 Your whole estate with joy. I know a way; 
 Silence shall answer on this seventh day. 
 
 Arl. I would that you would go and yet not go, — 
 After this day you never may return, 
 But every moment here doth pledge the worst 
 If you're disclosed. 
 
 Ron. Arline, for thee I leave, 
 
 And not for fear of aught, but for the love 
 I bear. This hour is not the tomb of hope. 
 
 Arl. Nor this the house of peace. 
 
 Ron. I This is a day 
 
 We speak aloud to God; say naught to man. 
 Yet answer both. 
 
 Arl. Then we need no farewell! 
 
 Ron. Sweet angel, you are truth; say no adieu, 
 Farewells are obsolete 'twixt me and you. 
 
 Arl. Farewells are false; adieus do but deceive; 
 Our souls are one, our hearts need never grieve. 
 
 Ron. Arline, I leave you but we do not part! 
 
 Arl. Ronel, you go; here ever is your heart! 
 
 Ron. O blessed truth, that absence never can 
 Purge soul of soul, howe'er so great the span! 
 
 Arl. Affliction ! thou art kind to teach us this, 
 A sesame to an eternal bliss ! 
 
 Ron. My Love, I go ; but soon I shall return. 
 
 Arl. I wait and watch; love's ever my concern. 
 
 Ron. a kiss, my dear! {Kisses her.) 
 (Arline reclines again on the lounge; hack to the door; 
 Ronel walks rather rapidly toward the entrance. 
 Enter Mr. Vardaman hastily; somewhat breathless; 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 75 
 
 almost running into Ronel. Mr. Vardaman and 
 RoNEL glare at each other a moment. Behind Varda- 
 man are Constance, Mrs. Gavit, the Butler, 
 Gardener and the Chauffeur. Arline turns 
 her head to see what has happened.) 
 Arl. Oh! Oh! miserable meeting! Oh Ronel! 
 
 Quickly ! the spirits of ammonia I faint ! 
 
 My ^breath ! 
 
 (Mr. Vardaman continues to stare at Ronel; Mrs. 
 Gavit rushes to Arline ; Constance runs out for 
 the aromatic spirits of ammonia. Ronel turns to see 
 Arline pale and fainting, her arms hanging limp. 
 He moves to approach her; Mr. Vardaman makes a 
 sudden lurch forward and seizes him by the shoulder.) 
 
 Var. Stand still ! 3^ou villainous rascal ! 
 
 Ron. Relax your hand from my shoulder! {Strug- 
 gling.) 
 
 Var. I unbend neither my hand nor my will 
 (Ronel tries to pull away. Enter Constance with a 
 bottle and glass partly filled with water. She ap- 
 proaches Arline; Gives her of it.) 
 
 Ron. Let me go to the girl! 
 
 Var. I shall not let you move. You are a trespasser 
 and a law breaker. You have entered my house 
 in disobedience of my word, but since you are here , 
 remain to give an explanation. 
 (Arline revives; remains on the lounge; her face covered 
 with her hands. Constance and Mr. Gavit sit at 
 either side.) 
 
 Ron. I was commanded to come here. 
 
76 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Var. I expected you this morning at my office. 
 
 Instead of your appearance there I received a phone 
 
 message stating that you had come here. What 
 
 do you mean by this? {Relaxes his hold.) 
 Ron. I came to claim my own. 
 Var. Nothing that is here is yours. 
 Arl. {Softly.) I am his. 
 Con. Hush! Arline! 
 Ron. And I am hers. {Moves toward her; Vardaman 
 
 places himself between them.) 
 Var. You persistent invader! That girl is my 
 
 daughter! Her very bping, her decisions, and her 
 
 circumstances are subject to my control. 
 Ron. {To Arline.) Tender, white shield, rise up 
 
 against your foe ! 
 Arl. {Rising.) I repudiate that paternal care, that, 
 
 bludgeon like, would strike me dead. {Falls back 
 
 on the lounge again.) 
 Mrs. Gav. Arline, do not speak thus of such a father. 
 Var. Ronel Vane, you are aware that the seventh 
 
 day is at hand. I require an answer from you that 
 
 accords with my will, or you shall leave this house 
 
 on the instant. 
 Ron. An answer! Zounds! have you not groomed 
 
 your wit enough to see that I shall never answer as 
 
 you wish ? Declare a falsehood to my soul and her's. 
 Var. That is your reply? Men, lay hold on him; 
 
 thrust him forth from this house forever. 
 (Arline startled, raises herself.) 
 Ron. Stop! Answer me this first, and bethink 
 
 yourself well. This girl is mine, her love and her 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. J7 
 
 soul. Will you let her leave with me; freely- 
 avoiding this belligerent discord; lessening the 
 grief of her soul; distraction of my life and her's? 
 will you? 
 Var. Fool! You had credit for more wit than you 
 
 displayed in such a question. 
 Ron. Ha ! you answer me thus ! you heartless knave ! 
 
 Hold off your men until I list your soul ; 
 
 Mirror to you this hey-day rage of blood, 
 
 That, theft -like, has disowned its debt to love. 
 
 Arl. {Pleading; showing signs of considerable weak- 
 ness.) 
 
 O Ronel, speak no more ; 'tis useless, go ! 
 
 Ron. I cannot; I've wild true words within, 
 
 And they must out at him. Perchance the time 
 
 Will come, when these truths, arrowed in his soul 
 
 Will drive and torture him to penitence ! 
 
 Swift as mine eye can sweep a starry arc 
 
 Of heaven's vaulted frame, I'd speed him there. 
 
 {Turns to Mr. Vardaman again; Arline lets herself 
 
 recline.) 
 
 Whom God hath richly dowered with a love. 
 
 You have encircled with intruding hate ; 
 
 Hedged in this flower with weeds; perplexed her life; 
 
 Retouched her perfect soul with cankered aims ; 
 
 Essayed to cauterize her throbbing heart 
 
 Of its most true and holy love ; defiled 
 
 Its law with specious edicts of your own ; 
 
 Feigned coinage of a true philosophy 
 
 That would not pass unchallenged half a day 
 
 LOFC 
 
78 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 As current tender for a tithe of life! 
 And why? Human perversity! Brother 
 To brutal ignorance that holds our orb 
 In wonted darkness! 
 
 Var. Leave me this instant! 
 
 (Arline raises herself; waves her arm at Ronel; he does 
 not notice it.) 
 
 Ron. Leave you! Not yet! hear this, rebellious 
 and 
 Surely schismatic to the see of love ; — 
 Such heretic's more worthy to be damned 
 Than all of hist'rys ; — hasten to the mount 
 Where sins are purged away; discover there 
 How to prolong the pursy love thou hast 
 For all the struggling world. In seven days 
 You can ascend its seven terraces, 
 Endure its dire purgation, much as I, 
 In these dread seven days, have been through mine; 
 For no man grows except that he be cleansed ! 
 
 Var. {To his servants.) 
 Seize him; throw the insulter from the house. 
 
 Ron. {Dodging their approach; they hesitate to ad- 
 vance.) 
 'Tis thus that you are moved with my reproach! 
 Wait one moment, then peacefully I go! 
 Hear yet another word, but may it crack 
 Imperviovis hearts to let its wisdom in! 
 Render to Love what things are due to Love ; 
 By such delivery you shall acquit 
 Yourself of hate and ill ; restore to earth 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 79 
 
 Its true and rich conjunctive with sweet heaven! 
 Now I depart ; ArHne, farewell ; have faith. 
 (^He starts forward to the door.) 
 
 Var. You have not time t' unsay those falsities! 
 Leave my house forever; if you return, 
 To prison you shall surely go. 
 
 Arl. {Raising herself; weeping.) Ronel! 
 
 Oh! Ronel! Ronel! 
 
 (Ronel stops; turns toward her.) 
 
 Con. Arline, you must lie still. 
 
 Ron. Arline, be brave! 
 
 Var. Men, bend your arms about him; buckle then 
 His wrist within your hands, and drag him out! 
 
 Ron. Affront me not with rude and desperate means. 
 (The men move forward to Ronel; he dodges them; they 
 reach him; he drives them off; then they overpower 
 him and slowly drag him toward the door.) 
 
 Ron. Let me be free and I shall go in peace ! 
 
 Arl. {Rising; frantically.) 
 Almighty God ! help him ! help me ! Stop them ! 
 Unbend your violent hands and make him free ! 
 
 O Ronel! My Love! O my breath! 
 
 {She sinks hack on the lounge.) 
 
 Var. Men, persist! 
 
 Drag him out with you ! 
 
 Arl. {Rising again.) O agony! Ronel! 
 Sister! God help him! Let him be free! 
 This doth invite another storm of grief 
 Whose elemental passion brings an end! 
 Ah ! this kills me ! I am dying my heart I 
 
8o THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 My ^br {Clutches at her heart; falls hack uncon- 
 scious upon the lounge; gasps for her breath a moment 
 and dies. Constance and Mrs. Gavit are bending 
 over her. Constance holds the bottle of spirits 
 of ammonia to her nose; Mrs. Gavit fans her.) 
 Con. {Rushing to her Father.) 
 Father! O father! Stop them! Arline has fallen 
 
 in a swoon! She is dying! 
 This scuffle has killed her ! 
 
 Ron. Let go! I say! Villains, Let go! 
 (With a great exertion he breaks away; rushes to the 
 lounge; bends over ^rline; kisses her.) 
 Var. (To Constance.) What? Dying? Men, hold 
 back a moment! {He runs to Arline. The men 
 retire just beyond the door.) 
 Ron. My God! My God! She is not dead! One! 
 This cannot be! Arline! My love, Arline! 
 Awake! Awake! Life, show thyself more plain! 
 This is not Death I see! Arline, O speak! {Bends over 
 her again.) 
 Con. {Weeping.) Father, sister hath giv'n her life 
 
 for love. 
 Var. Let me look once upon her face! My child! 
 Alas! You are dead! dead! what does it mean? 
 My daughter dead ! Th' import of this is deep ! 
 {He draws back to his chair; falls in it; assumes a thought- 
 ful appearance.) 
 Ron. What heavy penalty we have incurred!' 
 O see that sweet limp form! Its grace is there, 
 But its most pure and lofty spirit's gone! 
 Turn her about and let her lie awhile 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 8i 
 
 Where each of us may look upon her face, 
 And think upon her soul, timber'd so true 
 To God's pulsating love, it waned away 
 When thunderous discord dinned his radiant waves ! 
 (Constance and Mrs. Gavit turn her about. Ronel 
 draws back a little and stands meditatively.) 
 
 Mrs. Gav. Constance, her's was a soul we knew 
 naught of. 
 
 Con. Monna, she was my sister and yet I — 
 Ah! I cannot fitly speak, — ^my words choke! 
 
 Var. But I begin to understand 
 
 Ron. O God! 
 
 Would you had earlier learned to scan her soul ! 
 Opened your heart unto the life of her's 
 And had not been rejective as the winds. 
 The raging sea, or swollen rivers to 
 Th' appeals of man! 
 
 Var. In presence of the dead 
 
 Cease to condemn. 
 
 Ron. I shall condemn no more. 
 
 Var. My daughter, swiftly thou art gone with Death ! 
 But Death ! — ^thou hast revealed a life to me ; 
 Thy shroud is but a prism coloring 
 The lone light ray that strikes upon my soul. 
 Truths are that were not, and would never be ; 
 They rise, but could not, were it not for thee! 
 
 Ron. Your soul is purged of hate by death alone. 
 O bitter thong ! O prize, most sadly won! 
 Such sacrifice selfishly given brings 
 Some strangely welcome and unwelcome things! 
 
82 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Var. My spirit is hovering near an unknown verge, 
 Chastened and sorrowed by this sudden loss ; 
 So harrow not my much disordered mind. 
 
 Con. How calm she is within this sleep! 
 
 Mrs. Gav. How sweet 
 
 Her aspect! O how dignified is Death 
 When its convulsion's gone, and all is still. 
 
 Ron. {Addressing Arline.) 
 This seventh day thou hast the answer made ! 
 God hath accepted it ; no more is asked. 
 Into unwonted rest thou hast repaired, 
 Wedded the elements, not "me! O soul, 
 Go on ; and then wed higher things ! 
 
 Con. Her spir't 
 
 Must seek in heaven the joy that failed on earth. 
 
 Ron. O Lily Soul! Body as beautiful! 
 Brow lines, face angles cast of goddess-mold; 
 Visage illumed with gentleness and light; 
 A mind the active agent of its mak'r. 
 O sweetest, noblest wreck of womankind, 
 Thou wert the Universal Love made flesh ! 
 Some stellar refuge to thy spirit give 
 Aeonian sanctuary 'till I come! 
 I'll take an inventory of the heavens, 
 To see which star's increased its magnitude 
 With the accession of thy glowing soul. 
 To it my vassal spirit shall flee away! 
 We shall illume sweet Heaven with greater light, 
 And Earth shall see the truth of Love and weep ! 
 Should suns and stars forsake their wonted forms, 
 Its hand would mold them into orbs again ; 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 83 
 
 Its warmth would nurture human Hfe thereon, 
 And the re-worlded Universe would be 
 The starry and resultant symbol of 
 Eternal Time and Everlasting Love. 
 
 Var. Forgive me Ronel, I forgive you all. 
 What you have done of ill in anger, has 
 Been for the true and passionate love of her. 
 
 Ron. Forgive you sir, in presence of her death, 
 Make pardon and invective in one breath? 
 A sacrifice of her so aimed at me 
 Doth yield scant peace to such an enmity. 
 
 Con. O Ronel, let your vengeful spirit be 
 More supple to his prayer for her dear sake. 
 
 Ron. I'm not yet tempered to pursue revenge, 
 Or to forgive ; even in bitter grief 
 Malice cannot forswear it's native humor, 
 But both of us need her forgiveness now. {Pointing 
 to Arline.) 
 
 Var. a strange grief compasses my bending spir't; 
 Scarcely sev'n minutes have fled, yet penitence 
 Is mine; the mount is high: th' ascent I seek 
 Is steep but safe, and now I touch its peak. 
 
 Ron. O thine ascension has been grossly earned! 
 But use it well, and from its shriving point 
 Focus a better range upon the heart, 
 And let a true compassion henceforth be 
 The signet of your soul ; 'twill mold it 's course 
 Unto a happier issue. For that prize 
 You have my truest prayer. 
 
 Var. Go now in peace! 
 
84 THE DOUBLE LOVE. 
 
 Ron. {To Arline.) Arline, my love in this life and 
 this world 
 Hath touched at its meridian and passed! 
 The swift, ruthless relay of death transports 
 To other paths thy pilgrim soul; badged with 
 The wand'rer's scallop shell and sandal shoon 
 It makes its moorage in another clime 
 To roam some silvered shire of Heav'n's domain ! 
 Yet there is no farewell! Thou'rt with me still, 
 And ever shall be. Now we can depart 
 Together; O, I cannot stay to mourn 
 Over thy dust, whose spir'1: I came to seek, 
 For Life is not an elegy save when 
 Its passion-fathered thought outsoars its calm! 
 
 {To the others.) 
 Farewell! In sorrowed peace we go alone, 
 And naught can desolate this jointure set 
 Upon our souls, without earth's leave or let! 
 
 (RoNEL goes out.) 
 
 Mrs. Gav. {Weeping.) 
 Let me pass through this broken frame of things ; 
 I, too, must leave you now; my friends, farewell! 
 
 {She goes out.) 
 
 Con. {Who moves to her Father's side.) 
 Father! You love each other better now! 
 
 Var. We do; for I am sure that she forgives. 
 (Constance kisses him and goes out.) 
 
 Var. {Left alone with the body of Arline.) 
 Love is exchanged for Death; the price whereof 
 
THE DOUBLE LOVE. 85 
 
 Is never chalked upon the listing board. 
 
 I see its power and truth; my houses, lands, 
 
 My wealth, my years ; — ^my barren tutors all — 
 
 Have failed to teach me what this hour has taught ; 
 
 It puts the master touch upon my soul. 
 
 O what am I, to be instructed thus 
 
 By this untimely death and not by Love ? 
 
 Curtain. 
 
 The End. 
 
VlAY 3 1907