love me. I have heard it. Good-evening. [She goes toward the house.]
CHRISTIAN No, no, not yet! ... I wish to tell you...
ROXANE [pushing open the door to go in] That you adore me. Yes, I know. No! No! Go away! ... Go! ... Go! ...
CHRISTIAN But I ... [She closes the door in his face.]
CYRANO [who has been on the scene a moment, unnoticed] Unmistakably a success.
SCENE VI
Christian, Cyrano, briefly the Pages
CHRISTIAN Help me!
CYRANO No, sir, no.
CHRISTIAN I will go kill myself if I am not taken back into favor at once... at once!
CYRANO And how can I ... how, the devil? ... make you learn on the spot...
CHRISTIAN [seizing him by the arm] Oh, there! ... Look! ... See! [Light has appeared in the balcony window.]
CYRANO [with emotion] Her window!
CHRISTIAN Oh, I shall die!
CYRANO Not so loud!
CHRISTIAN [in a whisper] I shall die!
CYRANO It is a dark night....
CHRISTIAN Well?
CYRANO All may be mended. But you do not deserve.... There! stand there, miserable boy! ... in front of the balcony! I will stand under it and prompt you.
CHRISTIAN But...
CYRANO Do as I bid you!
THE PAGES [reappearing at the back, to CYRANO] Hey! CYRANO Hush! [He signs to them to lower their voices.]
FIRST PAGE [in a lower voice] We have finished serenading Montfleury!
CYRANO [low, quickly] Go and stand out of sight. One at this street corner, the other at that; and if any one comes near, play! ...
SECOND PAGE What sort of tune, Monsieur the Gassendist?
CYRANO Merry if it be a woman, mournful if it be a man. [The pages disappear, one at each street corner. To CHRISTIAN.] Call her!
CHRISTIAN Roxane!
CYRANO [picking up pebbles and throwing them at the window-pane] Wait! A few pebbles...
SCENE VII
Roxane, Christian, Cyrano, at first hidden under the balcony
ROXANE [opening the window] Who is calling me?
CHRISTIAN It is I ...
ROXANE Who is ... I?
CHRISTIAN Christian!
ROXANE [disdainfully] Oh, you!
CHRISTIAN I wish to speak with you.
CYRANO [under the balcony, to CHRISTIAN] Speak low! ...
ROXANE No, your conversation is too common.You may go home!
CHRISTIAN In mercy! ...
ROXANE No... you do not love me any more!
CHRISTIAN [whom CYRANO is prompting] You accuse me ... just Heaven! of loving you no more.... when I can love you no more!
ROXANE [who was about to close her window, stopping] Ah, that is a little better!
CHRISTIAN [same business] To what a ... size has Love grown in my... sigh-rocked soul which the ... cruel cherub has chosen for his cradle!
ROXANE [stepping nearer to the edge of the balcony] That is distinctly better! ... But, since he is so cruel, this Cupid, you were unwise not to smother him in his cradle!
CHRISTIAN [same business] I tried to, but, Madame, the... attempt was futile. This... new-born Love is... a little Hercules...
ROXANE Much, much better!
CHRISTIAN [same business] ... Who found it merest baby-play to ... strangle the serpents... twain, Pride and... Mistrust.
ROXANE [leaning her elbows on the balcony-rail] Ah, that is very good indeed! ... But why do you speak so slowly and stintedly? Has your imagination gout in its wings?
CYRANO [drawing CHRISTIAN under the balcony, and taking his place] Hush! It is becoming too difficult!
ROXANE To-night your words come falteringly.... Why is it?
CYRANO [talking low like CHRISTIAN] Because of the dark. They have to grope to find your ear.
ROXANE My words do not find the same difficulty.
CYRANO They reach their point at once? Of course they do! That is because I catch them with my heart. My heart, you see, is very large, your ear particularly small.... Besides, your words drop... that goes quickly; mine have to climb... and that takes longer!
ROXANE They have been climbing more nimbly, however, in the last few minutes.
CYRANO They are becoming used to this gymnastic feat!
ROXANE It is true that I am talking with you from a very mountain top!
CYRANO It is sure that a hard word dropped from such a height upon my heart would shatter it!
ROXANE [with the motion of leaving] I will come down.
CYRANO [quickly] Do not!
ROXANE [pointing at the bench at the foot of the balcony] Then do you get up on the seat! ...
CYRANO [drawing away in terror] No!
ROXANE How do you mean... no?
CYRANO [with ever-increasing emotion] Let us profit a little by this chance of talking softly together without seeing each other...
ROXANE Without seeing each other? ...
CYRANO Yes, to my mind, delectable! Each guesses at the other, and no more. You discern but the trailing blackness of a mantle, and I a dawn-grey glimmer which is a summer gown. I am a shadow merely, a