PELLEAS.

Yes, yes; I have seen them too....

MELISANDE.

Let us go!...  Let us go!...

PELLEAS.

Yes ... it is three old poor men fallen asleep....  There is a famine in the country....  Why have they come to sleep here....

MELISANDE.

Let us go!...  Come, come....  Let us go!...

PELLEAS.

Take care; do not speak so loud....  Let us not wake them....  They are still sleeping heavily....  Come.

MELISANDE.

Leave me, leave me; I prefer to walk alone....

PELLEAS.

We will come back another day.... [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.—­An apartment in the castle, ARKEL and PELLEAS discovered.

ARKEL.

You see that everything retains you here just now and forbids you this useless journey.  We have concealed your father’s condition from you until now; but it is perhaps hopeless; and that alone should suffice to stop you on the threshold.  But there are so many other reasons....  And it is not in the day when our enemies awake, and when the people are dying of hunger and murmur about us, that you have the right to desert us.  And why this journey?  Marcellus is dead; and life has graver duties than the visit to a tomb.  You are weary, you say, of your inactive life; but activity and duty are not found on the highways.  They must be waited for upon the threshold, and let in as they go by; and they go by every day.  You have never seen them?  I hardly see them any more myself; but I will teach you to see them, and I will point them out to you the day when you would make them a sign.  Nevertheless, listen to me; if you believe it is from the depths of your life this journey is exacted, I do not forbid your undertaking it, for you must know better than I the events you must offer to your being or your fate.  I shall ask you only to wait until we know what must take place ere long....

PELLEAS.

How long must I wait?

ARKEL.

A few weeks; perhaps a few days....

PELLEAS.

I will wait....

ACT THIRD

SCENE I.—­An apartment in the castle. PELLEAS and MELISANDE discovered, MELISANDE plies her distaff at the back of the room.

PELLEAS.

Yniold does not come back; where has he gone?

MELISANDE

He had heard something in the corridor; he has gone to see what it is.

PELLEAS.

Melisande....

MELISANDE

What is it?

PELLEAS.

...  Can you see still to work there?...

MELISANDE