Page:Pelléas and Melisande.djvu/19

Rh

How it shines in the sun!—Do not throw it so high toward the sky…

Oh!

It has fallen?

It has fallen in the water!…

Where is it, where is it?

I do not see it sinking…

I think that I see it sparkle…

My ring?

Yes, yes,…over there…

Oh, oh, it is so far from us…no, no, that is not it…that is no longer it… It is lost…lost… There is no longer anything but a great circle on the water… What shall we do now?

There is no need to be anxious over a ring. It is nothing, we will find it again, perhaps. Or else we will find another.

No, no; we shall never find it again, nor shall we find others either. Still I thought I had it in my hands. I had already closed my hands, and it fell in spite of all… I threw it too high, on the sunny side…

Come, we will return another day…come, it is time. They would come out to meet us. Noon sounded at the moment the ring was lost.

What shall we say to Golaud if he asks where it is?

The truth, the truth, the truth…

(They go out.)

Ah, ah! All goes well. It will be nothing. But I cannot explain to myself how it took place. I was hunting quietly in the forest. My horse suddenly ran away, without reason. Did he see something extraordinary?…I had just heard ring the twelve strokes of noon. At the twelfth stroke, he is suddenly frightened, and runs like a blind fool, against a tree. I know no longer what happened. I fell and he must have fallen on me. I thought I had the whole forest on my chest; I thought that my heart was torn apart. But my heart is solid. It appears that it is nothing…

Would you like to drink a little water?

Thanks; I am not thirsty.

Will you have another pillow?… There is a little stain of blood on this one.

No, no; it is not worth the trouble.