She's dead!
Let me unlock her arms!
TRESHAM. She threw them thus
About my neck, and blessed me, and then died:
You'll let them stay now, Guendolen!
AUSTIN. Leave her
And look to him! What ails you, Thorold?
GUENDOLEN. White
As she, and whiter! Austin! quick--this side!
AUSTIN. A froth is oozing through his clenched teeth;
Both lips, where they're not bitten through, are black:
Speak, dearest Thorold!
TRESHAM. Something does weigh down
My neck beside her weight: thanks: I should fall
But for you, Austin, I believe!--there, there,
'Twill pass away soon!--ah,--I had forgotten:
I am dying.
GUENDOLEN. Thorold--Thorold--why was this?
TRESHAM. I said, just as I drank the poison off,
The earth would be no longer earth to me,
The life out of all life was gone from me.
There are blind ways provided, the fore-done
Heart-weary player in this pageant-world
Drops out by, letting the main masque defile
By the conspicuous portal: I am through--
Just through!
GUENDOLEN. Don't leave him, Austin! Death is close.
TRESHAM. Already Mildred's face is peacefuller,
I see you, Austin--feel you; here's my hand,
Put yours in it--you, Guendolen, yours too!
You're lord and lady now--you're Treshams; name
And fame are yours: you hold our 'scutcheon up.
Austin, no blot on it! You see how blood
Must wash one blot away: the first blot came
And the first blood came.
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