me?
CAS. (demurely). I say I may not love you.
LUIZ. Ah, but you do not say you did not love me?
CAS. I loved you with a frenzy that words are powerless to
express--and that but ten brief minutes since!
LUIZ. Exactly. My own--that is, until ten minutes since,
my own--my lately loved, my recently adored--tell me that until,
say a quarter of an hour ago, I was all in all to thee!
(Embracing her.)
CAS. I see your idea. It's ingenious, but don't do that.
(Releasing herself.)
LUIZ. There can be no harm in revelling in the past.
CAS. None whatever, but an embrace cannot be taken to act
retrospectively.
LUIZ. Perhaps not!
CAS. We may recollect an embrace--I recollect many--but we
must not repeat them.
LUIZ. Then let us recollect a few! (A moment's pause, as
they recollect, then both heave a deep sigh.)
LUIZ. Ah, Casilda, you were to me as the sun is to the
earth!
CAS. A quarter of an hour ago?
LUIZ. About that.
CAS. And to think that, but for this miserable discovery,
you would have been my own for life!
LUIZ. Through life to death--a quarter of an hour ago!
CAS. How greedily my thirsty ears would have drunk the
golden melody of those sweet words a quarter--well, it's now
about twenty minutes since. (Looking at her watch.)
LUIZ. About that. In such a matter one cannot be too