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163
CYRANO DE BERGERAC
163
Roxane
[showing him the bench under the balcony].
Mount then on the bench !
Cyrano
[starting back alarmed].
No!
Roxane.
How, you will not ?
Cyrano
[more and more moved].
Stay a while ! Tis sweet, . . .
The rare occasion, when our hearts can speak
Ourselves unseen, unseeing !
Roxane.
Why - Unseen ?
Cyrano.
Ay, it is sweet ! Half hidden, half revealed
You see the dark folds of my shrouding cloak,
And I, the glimmering whiteness of your dress :
I but a shadow - you a radiance fair !
Know you what such a moment holds for me ?
If ever I were eloquent . . .
Roxane.
You were !
Cyrano.
Yet never till to-night my speech has sprung
Straight from my heart as now it springs.
Roxane.
Why not ?
