Do not forget your window-latch to-night,
For when the moon is dead the house is still."
[LEAR again parts the door-curtains at the back, and, seeing GORMFLAITH,
enters. At the first slight rustle of the curtains GORMFLAITH stealthily
slips the letter back into her bosom before turning gradually, a finger
to her lips, to see who approaches her.]
Lear (leaning over the side of her chair):
Lady, what do you read?
Gormflaith:
I read a letter, Sire.
Lear:
A letter--a letter--what read you in a letter?
Gormflaith (taking another letter from her girdle):
Your words to me--my lonely joy your words ...
"If you are steady and true as your gaze "--
Lear (tearing the letter from her, crumpling it, and flinging it to the
back of the room):
Pest!
You should not carry a king's letters about,
Nor hoard a king's letters.
Gormflaith:
No, Sire.
Lear:
Must the King also stand in the presence now?
Gormflaith (rising):
Pardon my troubled mind; you have taken my letter from me.
[LEAR seats himself and takes GORMFLAITH'S hand.
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