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124 LILITH
take it I am but jesting in a dream! It is of no consequence, however ; dreaming or waking, all's one—all merest appearance ! You can't be certain of anything, and that's as good as knowing there is nothing! Life may teach any fool that!'
' It has taught me the fool I was to love you !
' You were not the only fool to do that! Women had a trick of falling in love with me :—I had forgotten that you were one of them ! '
' I did love you, my lord—a little—at one time! '
Ah, there was your mistake, my lady ! You should have loved me much, loved me devotedly, loved me savagely—loved me eternally ! Then I should have tired of you the sooner, and not hated you so much afterward !—But let bygones be bygones !—Where are we ? Locality is the question ! To be or not to be, is not the question !'
' We are in the other world, I presume ! '
' Granted!—but in which or what sort of other world ? This can't be hell!'
' It must: there's marriage in it! You and I are damned in each other.'
' Then I'm not like Othello, damned in a fair wife ! —Oh, I remember my Shakspere, madam !'
She picked up a broken branch that had fallen into a bush, and steadying herself with it, walked away, tossing her little skull.
' Give that stick to me,' cried her late husband; ' I want it more than you.'
She returned him no answer.
' You mean to make me beg for it ? '
' Not at all, my lord. I mean to keep it,' she replied, continuing her slow departure. |
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