Yes....

PELLEAS.

What did he say to you?

MELISANDE.

Nothing;—­I no longer remember....

PELLEAS.

Was he quite near you?

MELISANDE.

Yes; he would have kissed me.

PELLEAS.

And you would not?

MELISANDE.

No.

PELLEAS.

Why would you not?

MELISANDE.

Oh! oh!  I saw something pass at the bottom of the water....

PELLEAS.

Take care! take care!—­You will fall!  What are you playing with?

MELISANDE.

With the ring he gave me....

PELLEAS.

Take care; you will lose it....

MELISANDE.

No, no; I am sure of my hands....

PELLEAS.

Do not play so, over so deep a water....

MELISANDE.

My hands do not tremble.

PELLEAS.

How it shines in the sunlight I—­Do not throw it so high in the air....

MELISANDE.

Oh!...

PELLEAS.

It has fallen?

MELISANDE.

It has fallen into the water!...

PELLEAS.

Where is it? where is it?...

MELISANDE.

I do not see it sink?...

PELLEAS.

I think I see it shine....

MELISANDE.

My ring?

PELLEAS.

Yes, yes; down yonder....

MELISANDE.

Oh! oh!  It is so far away from us!... no, no, that is not it ... that is not it....  It is lost ... lost....  There is nothing any more but a great circle on the water....  What shall we do?  What shall we do now?...

PELLEAS.

You need not be so troubled for a ring.  It is nothing....  We shall find it again, perhaps.  Or else we will find another....

MELISANDE.

No, no; we shall never find it again; we shall never find any others either....  And yet I thought I had it in my hands....  I had already shut my hands, and it is fallen in spite of all....  I threw it too high, toward the sun....

PELLEAS.

Come, come, we will come back another day;... come, it is time.  They will come to meet us.  It was striking noon at the moment the ring fell.

MELISANDE.

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

PELLEAS.

The truth, the truth, the truth.... [Exeunt.

SCENE II.—­An apartment in the castle. GOLAUD discovered, stretched upon his bed; MELISANDE, by his bedside.

GOLAUD.

Ah! ah! all goes well; it will amount to nothing.  But I cannot understand how it came to pass.  I was hunting quietly in the forest.  All at once my horse ran away, without cause.  Did he see anything unusual?...  I had just heard the twelve strokes of noon.  At the twelfth stroke he suddenly took fright and ran like a blind madman against a tree.  I heard no more.  I do not yet know what happened.  I fell, and he must have fallen on me.  I thought I had the whole forest on my breast; I thought my heart was crushed.  But my heart is sound.  It is nothing, apparently....