Widow
A wise person ought to take advice.
Lucy
You will follow Desmond's. What wisdom. What wisdom.
[Curtain in the original. End of Act I.]
Widow
Ah, Lucy, how ashamed I am to tell you of the distant vows I have made
to Desmond.
Lucy
So long as those distant vows don't come too soon, I approve of them.
Widow
If I were less virtuous than those ancient wives who could envisage no
other consolation except to swallow the ashes of their husbands!
Lucy
You see in your nephew the living features of your husband, his uncle.
Catching the possessor of those features will cure you of your
scruples.
Widow
Lucy, do you suppose Desmond misunderstands my motives?
Lucy
Not at all. I'm sure he understands them perfectly. But, be discreet.
A man understands a widow's hint.
Widow
I have always spoken to him with an indifference, a frigidity--
Lucy
See the fate of virtue--
Widow
I have expressed all the ideas of tenderness with perfect
circumspection, but--shrewdly, delicately, with refinement. Really,
without these precautions, I would expose myself to continual remorse.
I would imagine, without end, that the soul of the departed reproached
me. Yes, even in this moment, I hear his complaints, the sound of his
voice, actually in my ears.
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