[Scene: A garden with a fountain, at Fiori. Beatrice
and Bianca sitting side by side on a low step. Evening.]

BEA. How beautiful it is to sit like this,
Snow-White,--to think of much, and to say little.

BIA. Ay, it is beautiful. I shall remember
All my life long these evenings that we spent
Sitting just here, thinking together. [Pause.] Rose-Red,
It is four years today since first we met.
Did you know that?

BEA. Nay, is it?

BIA. Four years today.
I liked you from the moment that I saw you,
Beatrice!

BEA. I you, Bianca. From the very moment!
I thought you were the prettiest little girl
That I had ever seen.

BIA. I was afraid
Of you, a little, at first,--you were a Princess,
You see. But you explained that being a Princess
Was much the same as anything else. 'Twas nice,
You said, when people were nice, and when they were not nice
'Twas hateful, just the same as everything else.
And then I saw your dolls, and they had noses
All scratched, and wigs all matted, just like mine,