Page:Dramas 2.pdf/79

But that averted face, that downcast eye,—
There is abhorrence in it.

COUNTESS.

O no! I fear'd to look; 't is not abhorrence.

(Raises her eyes to him, and shrinks back.)

GARCIO.

What moves thee thus?

COUNTESS.

Alas! thou 'rt greatly alter'd:

So pale thy cheek, thine eyes so quench'd and sunk!
Hath one short night so changed thee?

GARCIO.

A night spent in the tossings of despair,

When the fierce turmoil of contending passions
To deepest self-abasement and contrition,
Subside;—a night in which I have consented
To tear my bosom up—to rend in twain
Its dearest, only ties; ay, such a night
Works on the mortal frame the scathe of years.

COUNTESS.

Alas! thy frame will feel, I fear, too soon

The scathe of years. Sorrow and sickness then
Will bow thee down, while cold unkindly strangers
Neglect thy couch, nor give thee needful succour.