HAMILTON (he has drained the goblet and set it on the table; he rises,
and looks full at her). Did you doubt that I would come?
RACHAEL (speaking lightly, and averting her eyes). I thought you were on
St. Kitts.
HAMILTON (vehemently). Still I would have come. I knew the hurricane
would give you to me. And out there, fighting inch by inch, the breath
beaten out of my body, my arms almost torn from their sockets, maddened
by the terrible confusion, I still knew that Nature was driving me to
you, as she has separated us since the day I came, with her smiling,
intolerable calm--
RACHAEL (still half frivolous under the sudden wrench from
tragic despair). And, after that terrible experience, you still
have love and romance in you! I should want a warm bed, and
then--to-morrow--to-morrow--we will sit on the terrace and watch the
calm old sun go down into the calm old sea, with not a thought for the
torn old earth--
HAMILTON. Rachael! I did not come here to jest.
RACHAEL. I must go to my mother! She is alone! _What_ have I done?
HAMILTON. Stay where you are! Do you mean that you wish you had not
opened the door?
RACHAEL (she hesitates a moment, then raises her eyes to his, and
answers distinctly).
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