He is all mine, all mine. Kurt's sons are straight,
And ruddy, like Kurt's wife of Hamelin there,
Who died before.
PIPER
And you were wed. . .
VERONIKA
So young,
It is all like some dream before the sunrise,
That left me but that little shipwrecked Star.
PIPER
Why did you marry Kurt the Councillor?
VERONIKA
[humbly]
He wanted me. Once I was beautiful.
PIPER
[wonderingly]
What, more than now?
VERONIKA
Mock if you will.
PIPER
I mock you;
O Woman, . . . you are very beautiful.
VERONIKA
I meant, with my poor self, to buy him house
And warmth, and softness for his little feet.
Oh, then I knew not,--when we sell our hearts,
We buy us nothing.
PIPER
Now you know.
VERONIKA
I know.
His dearest home it was, to keep my heart
Alone and beautiful, and clear and still;
And to keep all the gladness in my heart,
That bubbled from nowhere!--for him to drink;--
And to be houseless of all other things,
Even as the Lonely Man.
[The PIPER starts]
Where is the child?
PIPER
No; that I will not tell. Only thus much:
I love thy child. Trust me,--I love them, all.
They are the brightest miracle I know.
Wherever I go, I search the eyes of men
To find such clearness;--and it is not there.
Lies, greed and cruelty, and dreadful dark!
And all that makes Him sad these thousand years,
And keeps His forehead bleeding.
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