And can he talk, too?
PIPER
Lady, you have bewitched him.
MICHAEL
Oh! dear Lady,
With you--with you, I dare not ope my mouth
Saving to sing, or pray!
PIPER
Let it be singing!
Lad, 't is a wildered maiden, with no home
Save only thee; and she is more a child
Than yesterday.
MICHAEL
Oh, lordly, wondrous world!--
How is it, Sweet, you smile upon me now?
BARBARA
Sure I have ever smiled on thee. How not?
Art thou not Michael?--_And thou lovest me_.
_And I love thee_!--If I unloved thee ever,
It was some spell.--
[Rapturously]
But this,--ah, _This is I_!
[MICHAEL, on his knees, winds his arms about her.
PIPER
[softly]
It is all true,--all true. Lad, do not doubt;
The golden cage is broken.
MICHAEL
Oh! more strange
Than morning dreams! I am like one new-born;
I am a speechless babe.--And this is she,
My Moon I cried for,--here,--
PIPER
It is thy bride.
MICHAEL
Thou wilt not fear to come with me?
BARBARA
With thee?
With thee! Ah, look! What have I more than thee?
And thou art mine, tall fellow! How comes it now
Right happily that I am pranked so fair!
[She touches her fineries, her long pearl-strings, joyously]
And all this came so near to burying;
This!
MICHAEL
And this dearer gold.
[Kissing her hair.]
BARBARA
All, all for thee!--
[She leans over in a playful rapture and
binds her hair about him]
Look,--I will be thy garden that we lost,
Yea, everywhere,--in every wilderness.
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