(Curtain.) Scene 2.—The same. Alicia alone.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 120, 17 November 1900, Page 1 (Supplement)

(Curtain.) Scene 2. — The same. Alicia alone.

Alicia (musing) : "It doesn't seem like a year since Raimund went. Ah, yes, it does. And it seems a little more than five years! I can't realise that I shall see him so soon. Dear boy, he has changed ; I can feel ib in his letters. He seems more dignified, more guarded. I notioed that especially in his writing of his friendship with my cousins. I know from Helen's letters that he has been with them constantly since he went to San Francisco, and yet he mentions them always in the most distant -way, as if he saw them once a month or so. Perhaps that is significant. I rather fancied "that he might be attracted permanently, they both such charming girls, though Amy, of course, is very young — not 18 yet. He has spoken of her more often than of Helen, perhaps, because he knows she is my favourite. Heigho !** Poor Raimund. I hope he has come back cured, or — do I hope it? I am a year older, but am I a year wiser? - I-^don't know. My heart goes beating as if it ■belonged to a young girl expecting a call from her first sweetheart." (Smiling softly.) "I am Raimund's first sweetheart — at least I was ; but much can happen in a year. I have a curious feeling as if something were coining to make me sorry. I • wonder — there's the bell! He can't be so soon! I told Nora to send him up. Yes, that's his footstep." (Controls herself, and stands -waiting until a tap is heard..) " Come t< in." (Enter Raimund.) " Raimund !" Raimund :, " Yes, I'm here, dear — dear Alicia 1" (Grasps both her hands warmly.) "How glad lam to see you again!" Alicia : " And lam more glad than I can say." Raimund : "Is it possible you are more anything that you can say? You never used to be." (He laughs.) Alicia (mentally) : " Oh, he's changed. How brown he is — how handsome ! No, it is only that he has grown to be a man." Raimund (still keeping her hands and looking urightly into her face) : " Well, do you recognise me? I think I must be altered— the life out there is so different from our New York life ; but I like it — it is splendid. lam glad I gave it a trial." Alicia (with an odd sense of depression) : " Yes, you are altered, Raimund. You seem to have grown larger every way — " Raimund : " Thank you. My views of life I know are wider. You? You don't seem changed at all, but you look pale. Were you always so pale, Alicia?" Alicia : " I'm a year older, you must remember. " Raimund (heartily) : " And a year lovelier, indeed you are,^ I think I must have forgotten about ydiir being so very pretty. It strikes me so, forcibly now. And your eyes are just the same. I have thought of them so often. Your cousin Amy's eyes and yours are very much alike." '~ Alicia (mentally): "How bold he is!*' (Withdrawing her hands.) "Yes, they are alike, I think." Raimund (critically) : " Amy's are darker, a little. By the way, they've sent letters and packages — your aunt and cousins — but I've not got my trunks yet. I just stepped off the train, took a bath, and came straight to you." Alicia: "How nice and kind!'' Rairaund: "To myself. It's such a delight to sit and talk with you again ; but there's so much to tell you, I don't know where to begin ! I've had a glorious time with your cousins, and your aunt has really been like a sweet mother to me. Right at once they made the strange city seem like home." Alicia : " And 1 Aunt Laura's health is so wonderfully improved, Helen writes me." Raimund (enthusiastically) : " Improved! You ne-\ser saw anything like it. And the girls are really — well, really beauties, both of them. They are coming on to New York — I suppose Helen has told you — very soon now." Alicia : " She has not spoken of it." Raimund : " Oh, they are coming ; at least, I hope they will— that is, I think — they ought to." Alicia (mentally) : " How confused he seems." (Aloud, smiling): "Why do you think they ought to? Aren't they quite happy in San Francisco?" Raimund: "Well, I'm selfish, I suppose. I'll miss them a good deal." Alicia (sympathetically) : " Oh, I can understand that. Helen is so charming, don't you think? I said at once when I knew you were to stay in San Francisco that. Helen would be just the friend you needed there." Raimund : " She certainly is splendid ; but — it's curious — somehow, I took to Amy more." Alicia: "Oh, did you? She's very young." Raimund : " I liked that. I never had such companionship before. I mean — er" (reddening slightly) — "ah — I'm glad Amy is your favourite, too." ' Alicia, (slowly) : " But I've scarcely thought of her, except as a child. We have not met for three years, you know." Raimund : " She is a child— or, rather, a child with a woman's heart. But if you've not seen her for three years you'll be surprised and delighted. I have her picture here." (He detaches a little locket from his watch-chain and hands it to Alicia.) "That is just as she looks now." Alicia (in surprise) : "Is it possible she allows you to wear her picture?"" Kaimund (calmly): "Yes. She fastened it on my watch-chain before I came away." Alicia: "How strange !— But" (smiling faintly) "perhaps it isn't strange. Perhaps there was a good reason." Raimund : " Well, yes. I will tell you the reason in a minute, but you must .admire her lovely face a little first." • Alicia : " I do, extremely." Raimund : " And she's such a darling —the best of darlings, the sweetest and sincerest— Why, what's the matter, Alicia?" Alicia (bravely) : " The matter— Nothing." Raimund : " There is. You're so awfully pale, and— you're crying!" Alicia (with a sob) : " Oh, not crying — only — this sweet young face— and I'm thinking — hoping — that — you may be i very, very happy, Raimund I"

Raimund (very gravely) : " That is for you to say, Alicia." Alicia: "And I say it with all my heart. Be happy! Yes, I wish you to be. Don't mind a few tears. They only come because" — (hysterically) — " I am glad — glad — " Raimund (with soothing tenderness) : " Because you are glad to see me — that's right ! It's all right ! Let me dry your tears, and then I must ask you one little question which Amy told me to ask." Alicia (imploringly) : " Oh, wait — wait ' — give me a moment. Do you think I have no feeling — no remembrance of what is past? You and Amy have all your lives to be together — all the days and years that are coming — " Raimund (in astonishment) : " I and Amy? What in the Avorld are you talking of, Alicia? What do you mean? Do you suppose — you don't suppose — " Alicia : " Oh, dear Raimund, I know, I know! And it is natural — it is just what should be. There ! I won't be selfish any more. Now> talk .and .tell me about her. Pour out all that is in your heart." Raimund (still astonished) : " But then there isn't any thing to pour. Amy only wanted me to ask you if you would let her be your bridesmaid when — we are married." Alicia : " Raimund— O Raimund !'•' (Sobs wildly in his arms.) Raimund (enraptured, but perplexed) : "My blessed girls! Oh, don't, Aligia! You break my heart ! What is it, dearest! What makes you grieve? Oh" — (suddenly turning pale) : " you can't — you don't mean to — cast me off after all!". Alicia (from his coat collar) : " Does this — seem like — casting you off?" Raimund : " No — oh— but speak to me, for heaven's sake !" Alicia (with an effort) : " Oh, I thought you had come to tell me you loved "Amy, and wished to marry her." Raimund: "Loved Amy? How could you get hold of such an idea?" Alicia: "You wore her picture." Raimund : " She was sending'it to you, dear, locket and all, and snapped it on my. chain so it would be sure not to be forgotten." Alicia : " But you spoke of her so much every moment." , Raimund : " Because for this long year she has been my little helper and confidante. She knew all my doubts and uncertainties. I could go to her and simply rave about you, and I did. An older woman would not have listened. And when your freezing letters came in it was such a relief to tell her how wretched they made me." Alicia (repentantly) : " Oh, po-o-or boy !" Raimund: "And she knew how I dreaded to put my fate to the testthat I waa afraid, as the time drew near, to come back to you for my answer. It was she who suggested that I would appear before you, carelessly and recklessly, as I've tried to (with my heart in my boots at the same time), and pretend to ake everything for granted. And she told me. I must not make you a proposal at all ; but merely ask you if you would let your cousin Amy be your bridesmaid. Will you, darling?" Alicia {almost inaudibly) : If you still think I am — worthy — to be — the bride." — Damorest's Magazine.